Continuous microalgal culture module and method of culturing microalgae containing macular pigment

Meng-Wei Lin; Chih-Sheng Lin; Yu-Tso Chen; Shao-Qian Huang; Yi-Chun Yang; Wen-Xin Zhang; Wei-Hong Chiu; Cheng-Han Lin; Chiu-Mei Kuo

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2024.130714

Continuous microalgal culture module and method of culturing microalgae containing macular pigment

Bioresour Technol. 2024 Apr 17:401:130714. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.130714. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Meng-Wei Lin¹, Chih-Sheng Lin², Yu-Tso Chen³, Shao-Qian Huang³, Yi-Chun Yang¹, Wen-Xin Zhang¹, Wei-Hong Chiu¹, Cheng-Han Lin¹, Chiu-Mei Kuo⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan.
² Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan; Center for Intelligent Drug Systems and Smart Bio-systems (IDS(2)B), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City 320, Taiwan. Electronic address: cmkuo@cycu.edu.tw.

PMID: 38641299
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2024.130714

Abstract

This study established and investigated continuous macular pigment (MP) production with a lutein (L):zeaxanthin (Z) ratio of 4-5:1 by an MP-rich Chlorella sp. CN6 mutant strain in a continuous microalgal culture module. Chlorella sp. CN6 was cultured in a four-stage module for 10 days. The microalgal culture volume increased to 200 L in the first stage (6 days). Biomass productivity increased to 0.931 g/L/day with continuous indoor white light irradiation during the second stage (3 days). MP content effectively increased to 8.29 mg/g upon continuous, indoor white light and blue light-emitting diode irradiation in the third stage (1 day), and the microalgal biomass and MP concentrations were 8.88 g/L and 73.6 mg/L in the fourth stage, respectively. Using a two-step MP extraction process, 80 % of the MP was recovered with a high purity of 93 %, and its L:Z ratio was 4-5:1.

Keywords: Chlorella; Continuous microalgae culture module; Lutein; Macular pigment; Zeaxanthin.