Heterotrophic culture of cyanobacteria Phormidium sp. employing different carbohydrates and cassava wastewater as organic carbon source

Author(s)

Erika Cristina Francisco

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Engenharia Química
• Defense date: 2014-02-14

Examining board members

Telma Teixeira Franco; Marli de Fatima Fiore; Ranulfo Monte Alegre; Reinaldo Gaspar Bastos; Jaciane Lutz Ienczak

• Advisor: Telma Teixeira Franco

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the production of biomass and lipid accumulation of cyanobacteria Phormidium sp. from heterotrophic cultivation with different sources of organic carbon, study diferente strategies of cultures employing cassava wastewater and analyse the lipid accumulation from different nitrogen sources. First we assessed the ability of the cyanobacterium Phormidium sp. to growth in 15 different exogenous sources of organic carbon. Results indicated that the cassava starch and maltodextrin as those with the highest potential for exploitation for the production of biomass and lipids. In a second step, the increase in biomass production process was made from cassava starch employing an experimental design. The results indicated that the C/N of 68 and temperature of 30ºC are the optimal operating conditions. Extrapolation of cultivation in flasks for batch and batch with fed discontinuous operations in bioreactors resulted in biomass productivity of 50.72 mg/L.h and 42.13mg/L.h, respectively. The third stage of the project involved the study of the heterotrophic system of cyanobacteria using different modes of cultivation using cassava wastewater as substrate, initially through different concentrations (v/v) of wastewater in water (5, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%). The results showed that the best concentration of cassava was 60%. Then, in a bioreactor cultivation was started in batch mode (System A), and batch with descontinuous feeds, using the culture medium as wastewater and different feed solutions. In the first feed system (System B) used a concentrated solution of cassava starch, and in second (System C), the bioreactor was fed with undiluted wastewater. The feeds were made so that the concentration of COD in the bioreactor to achieve a concentration of 6000mg/L. The extrapolation to cultivations in bioreactor resulted in productivity of biomass (53.12 mg/L.h) and lipid (7.45 mg/L.h) under simple batch (System A). The last stage of the project involved the study of different nitrogen sources (ammonium molybdate, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, urea and yeast extract) in heterotrophic cultures of Phormidium sp. using cassava starch as a source of organic carbon. From the results obtained, we selected sodium nitrate under C/N ratio of 60 as the source with the highest potential in the production of lipids, resulting in the amount of lipids, productivity of lipid and biomass of 20.58%, 7.62 mg/L.h and 37.02 mg/L.h, respectively. The process of depletion of sodium nitrate resulted in an increase in the amount of lipids (25.07%) and the lipid productively (10.47mg/L.h) (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/18606-7 - Heterotrophic cultures of cyanobacterium Phormidium sp. employing different carbohydrates and cassava wastewater as a source of organic carbon.
• Grantee: Erika Cristina Francisco
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate