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Development of nitrogen supply strategy for Scenedesmus rubescens attached cultivation toward growth and lipid accumulation

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Abstract

In this study, the microalgae Scenedesmus rubescens were cultivated under the following nitrogen sources, nitrogen concentrations, and nitrogen feeding times (NFTs). This was to help assess biomass and lipid productivity. Scenedesmus rubescens can grow well by adhering to the cellulose acetate membrane in five kinds of nitrogen medium: KNO3, urea, NaNO3, (NH4)2CO3, and NH4NO3. Under the criteria of bio-productivity and lipid productivity, urea was the optimal nitrogen source. Among different urea concentrates, biomass productivity and lipid content of S. rubescens cultivated in 0.27 g/L urea medium were optimized at 8.8 g/(m2 day) and 31.1%, respectively. With attached cultivation, the highest biomass of 9.4 g/m2 was obtained at NFTs of 4 days. These results showed that culturing S. rubescens using urea as sole nitrogen source by improving nitrogen uptake with attached cultivation is more efficient.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31560724), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (20171BAB214014), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017T100583, 2016M600616), Natural Science and Technology Major Special Program of China (2014ZX07104-005-02) and Collaborative Innovation Center for Major Ecological Security Issues of Jiangxi Province and Monitoring Implementation (JXS-EW-00).

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  1. Pengfei Cheng and Yan Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Pengfei Cheng

  2. Poyang Lake Eco-Economy Research Center, Jiujiang University, Jiujiang, 332005, China

    Pengfei Cheng

  3. Electron Business College of Jiujiang University, Jiujiang, 332005, China

    Yan Wang

  4. School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    David Osei-Wusu

  5. School of Water Conservancy and Environment, China Three Gorges University, Yichang, 443000, China

    Yuanzhu Wang

  6. Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, China

    Tianzhong Liu

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  1. Pengfei Cheng
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  2. Yan Wang
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  3. David Osei-Wusu
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  4. Yuanzhu Wang
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  5. Tianzhong Liu
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Correspondence to Pengfei Cheng.

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Cheng, P., Wang, Y., Osei-Wusu, D. et al. Development of nitrogen supply strategy for Scenedesmus rubescens attached cultivation toward growth and lipid accumulation. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 41, 435–442 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1877-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1877-9

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