Bench-Scale Cultivation of Microalgae Scenedesmus almeriensis for CO2 Capture and Lutein Production

Abstract

In this study, Scenedesmus almeriensis as green microalga was cultivated on bench-scale for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and lutein production. The autotrophic cultivation of S. almeriensis was carried out by using a vertical bubble column photo-bioreactor (VBC-PBR) with a continuous flow of a gaseous mixture of oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), and CO2, the latter in content of 0.0–3.0 %v/v. The liquid phase was batch. S. almeriensis growth was optimized. In addition, lutein extraction was carried out by using accelerated solvent extraction with ethanol as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) solvent at 67 °C and 10 MPa. Upon optimization of CO2 concentration, the maximum biomass productivity, equal to 129.24 mg·L−1·d−1, was achieved during the cultivation by using a content of CO2 equal to 3.0 %v/v and it allowed to obtain a lutein content of 8.54 mg·g−1, which was 5.6-fold higher in comparison to the analogous process carried out without CO2 addition. The ion chemical analysis in the growth medium showed that by gradually increasing CO2 content, the nutrient consumption during the growth phase also increased. This study may be of potential interest for lutein extraction at industrial scale, since it is focused on pigment production from a natural source with a concomitantly CO2 capture.

Enhancing Biomass and Lutein Production From Scenedesmus almeriensis: Effect of Carbon Dioxide Concentration and Culture Medium Reuse

“…The lutein content obtained in this study, equal to 5.71 mg/g, was lower than the value of 8.54 mg/g reported by Molino et al (2019) who investigated the performance of the same microalgal species using a vertical bubble column photo-bioreactor with a volume to surface ratio (V/S) of 56.6 L/m 2 . The different lutein content can be explained by the different photo-bioreactor configuration in the two research works: V/S ratio = 11.5 L/m 2 (this work) and = 56.6 L/m 2 (Molino et al, 2019).…”

“…The lutein content obtained in this study, equal to 5.71 mg/g, was lower than the value of 8.54 mg/g reported by Molino et al (2019) who investigated the performance of the same microalgal species using a vertical bubble column photo-bioreactor with a volume to surface ratio (V/S) of 56.6 L/m 2 . The different lutein content can be explained by the different photo-bioreactor configuration in the two research works: V/S ratio = 11.5 L/m 2 (this work) and = 56.6 L/m 2 (Molino et al, 2019). On the other hand, the value reported in this work is slightly higher than those reported in microalgae-based lutein studies using batch phototrophic conditions (Sánchez et al, 2008b;Ho et al, 2014;Xie et al, 2014Xie et al, , 2017, while it is comparable with the values reported by Sánchez et al (2008a,b) who studied S. almeriensis growth in a continuous mode.…”

Techno-Economic Study of CO2 Capture of a Thermoelectric Plant Using Microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) for Production of Feedstock for Bioenergy

“…On the other hand, recent researches to improve the cost of obtaining microalgae has focused on the use of waste and integrating the co-production of high-value compounds [39]. CO 2 sequestration using a biorefinery approach, through interconnection with the cultivation of microalgae, is an interesting idea, since the waste generated from power plants or other industrial facilities is used [34,40]. The residual microalgae biomass, which was rich in protein and carbohydrates, could still be used as a carbon source for anaerobic fermentation in the production of volatile fatty acids, biohydrogen, CO 2 , among others.…”

An Empirical Study on Greenhouse Gas Emission Calculations Under Different Municipal Solid Waste Management Strategies

“…Ghosh et al estimated the GHG emissions from landfill sites in Delhi, India, and they pointed out that effective CH 4 recycling is a sustainable waste management scheme [25]. Besides, Carbon dioxide capture and recycling methods such as the production of biobased products through microalgae can be used as effective means of reducing GHG emissions [26,27].…”