Abstract
Chlorella sorokiniana (DOE 1412) emerged as one of the most promising microalgae strains from the NAABB consortium project and was found to have a remarkable doubling time under optimal conditions of 2.57 h−1. However, its maximum achievable annual biomass productivity in outdoor ponds in the contiguous USA has not yet been demonstrated. In order to address this knowledge gap, this alga was cultured in indoor LED-lighted and temperature-controlled raceways in nutrient replete freshwater (BG-11) medium at pH 7 under conditions simulating the daily sunlight intensity and water temperature fluctuations during three seasons in Southern Florida, an optimal outdoor pond culture location for this organism identified by prior biomass growth modeling. Prior strain characterization indicated that the average maximum specific growth rate (μ max) at 36 °C declined continuously with pH, with μ max corresponding to 5.92, 5.83, 4.89, and 4.21 day−1 at pH 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively. In addition, the maximum specific growth rate declined nearly linearly with increasing salinity until no growth was observed above 35 g L−1 NaCl. In the climate-simulated culturing studies, the volumetric ash-free dry weight-based biomass productivities during the linear growth phase were 57, 69, and 97 mg L−1 day−1 for 30-year averaged light and temperature simulations for January (winter), March (spring), and July (summer), respectively, which correspond to average areal productivities of 11.6, 14.1, and 19.9 g m−2 day−1. The photosynthetic efficiencies (PAR) in these three climate-simulated pond culturing experiments ranged from 4.1 to 5.1%. The annual biomass productivity was estimated as ca. 15 g m−2 day−1, nearly double the US Department of Energy (DOE) 2015 State of Technology annual cultivation productivity of 8.5 g m−2 day−1, but still well below the projected DOE 2022 target of ca. 25 g m−2 day−1 required for economic microalgal biofuel production, indicating the need for additional research.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office, US Department of Energy (Agreements DE-EE0006316 and DE-EE0006317), via subcontracts from New Mexico State University and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, respectively. Additional support by the Department of Energy Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship Program was provided to David Rye and Samuel Hobbs.
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Huesemann, M., Chavis, A., Edmundson, S. et al. Climate-simulated raceway pond culturing: quantifying the maximum achievable annual biomass productivity of Chlorella sorokiniana in the contiguous USA. J Appl Phycol 30, 287–298 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-017-1256-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-017-1256-6