Astaxanthin production under stress factors using a 5L laboratory scale bioreactor

Producción de astaxantina bajo factores de estrés utilizando un biorreactor a escala de laboratorio de 5 L

Introduction. Haematococcus pluvialis is a microalgae that produces astaxanthin, a beta-ca-rotene and antioxidant widely used in industry. In order to obtain a higher production of astaxanthin, the objective was to use different stress factors, in a 5-liter laboratory-scale bioreactor. Methodology. The microalgae was cultivated in the RM medium, pH 6.8, temperature 20 ± 2oC, filtered air, illumination with white lamps 20h light/4h darkness, irradiance 70 μE m−2s−1, different concentrations of sodium acetate and chloride of sodium. Cell growth, morphological changes and quantification of astaxanthin and chlorophyll were determined by spectrophotometry. Statistical analysis was performed using ANOVA (95%). Results. Using 0.299 mg/L of sodium acetate a cell growth of 2.0 x 104 Cel/mL and an astaxanthin concentration of 2.530 μg/mL were obtained, while with 1.6 mg/L of sodium acetate the cell growth It was 3.5 x 104 Cel/mL and an astaxanthin concentration of 1.9 μg/mL. The treatment to which 1.6 g L of sodium acetate and 6.4 g/L of sodium chlo-ride were added showed the highest astaxanthin production, 7.3 μg/ml. Treatment with 0.320 g/L sodium acetate + 1.28 g/L sodium chloride showed the highest cell growth with 1.64x105 cells/ml. Conclusion. This research highlights the importance of initially culti-vating the microalgae using the 5-liter Tecferm bioreactor and, after its exponential phase, subjecting it to stress factors with sodium acetate and sodium chloride, thus achieving the highest production of 7.325 μg / ml astaxanthin. 

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