Optmization of autotrophic culture medium formulation to maximize the growth of microalgae

• Grant number: 15/04327-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: January 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Chemical Process Industries
• Principal Investigator: Telma Teixeira Franco
• Grantee: Julia Bratifsch da Silveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Química (FEQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Microalgae are considered one of the most promising alternatives for the production of biofuels due to its high growth rates and lipid accumulation capacity. However, because they are micro-organisms composed of various products of interest, such as proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and pigments, they can also be used in food and feed and at cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. Traditionally microalgae are cultured under autotrophic photosynthetic system which is more feasible to scale-up. Changing certain components of the culture medium and their quantities, ie, optimizing the composition of the medium, we can obtain the maximum yield of product, since we can increase the capacity of biomass and proteins accumulation (or any other desired fraction).This work aims to study different compositions of culture medium and evaluate which is the optimal composition that most favors the growth and also the accumulation of proteins from microalgae. Experimental statistical planning of Plackett-Burmann types and full or fractional factorial will be used. These procedures are based on statistical methods and enable us to optimize the concentrations of the fundamental components of the medium by varying them simultaneously in a small number of experiments, besides, they take into account the degree of inter-relationship between the components and allow us to identify which variables do not exercise influence on the results.Finally, a brief economic analysis comparing the price of the initial culture medium with the price of the optimized culture medium will be performed.