Technology of cultivation of the marine microalga Tetraselmis viridis under natural light and at minimum technical cost

Abstract

The main reason for slow implementation of scientific developments of marine algotechnology into industrial practice is the lack of systems that allow obtaining microalgae biomass in quantities that are necessary for practical study of potential products and development of industrial technology for their production. Such systems can significantly reduce the economic cost of creating and maintaining favorable abiotic conditions for growing microalgae on an industrial scale, since solar energy is used as a light source. The article proposes a method for growing marine microalgae Tetraselmis viridis in natural light and at minimum technical cost. The authors developed a mobile unit for cultivating marine microalgae and studying their growth characteristics in natural light. This unit is proposed to be used in the transition from laboratory cultivation to cultivation on an industrial scale. The basic requirements for the mobile unit for industrial cultivation of algologically pure T. viridis are specified. The technology ensuring the organization of T. viridis cultivation process with a maximum productivity of 5.7 g·m−2·day−1 and a maximum culture density of 271.6 billion cells·m−2 (R² = 0.99) has been developed. The authors provide a comparative assessment of the biochemical composition and kinetic growth characteristics of T. viridis depending on growing conditions using either the mobile unit in natural light or the laboratory photobioreactor in constant artificial light.

Keywords

• marine microalgae
• Tetraselmis viridis
• batch culture
• productivity
• industrial cultivation