Optimizing <i>Chlorella vulgaris</i> Cultivation to Enhance Biomass and Lutein Production
Kangping Wu,
Jiangling Lai,
Qi Zhang,
Yunpu Wang,
Xian Cui,
Yuhuan Liu,
Xiaodan Wu,
Zhigang Yu,
Roger Ruan
Affiliations
Kangping Wu
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Jiangling Lai
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Qi Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Yunpu Wang
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Xian Cui
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Yuhuan Liu
College of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Xiaodan Wu
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Ministry of Education, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, China
Zhigang Yu
Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology (Formerly AWMC), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Roger Ruan
Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
Lutein is widely used in medicine, health care, and food processing due to its antioxidant effects; however, it is difficult for the traditional extraction of lutein using marigolds to meet the increasing market demand for lutein. To achieve high-efficiency lutein production, we investigated the effects of different conditions on the biomass accumulation and lutein yield of Chlorella vulgaris. The optimized cultivation conditions include mixotrophic cultivation using sodium nitrate as a nitrogen source, maintaining a total-organic-carbon-to-total-nitrogen ratio of 12:1, a total-nitrogen-to-total-phosphorus ratio of 10:1, and lighting duration of 24 h. The results of the study indicated that under these specific conditions, Chlorella vulgaris attained a final biomass concentration, biomass productivity, and growth yield of 6.08 g·L−1, 1.00 g·L−1·d−1, and 1.67 g biomass/g TOC, respectively. Additionally, the concentrations of total chlorophyll, carotenoid, lutein, and protein reached 139.20 mg·L−1, 31.87 mg·L−1, 15.02 mg·L−1, and 2.17 g·L−1, respectively, and the content of lutein reached 2.47 mg·g−1. This study supplies a theoretical basis for the industrial application of lutein production using Chlorella vulgaris.
