Engineering Commons^™

Minimal Medium For Optimal Growth And Lipid Production Of The Microalgae Scenedesmus Dimorphus, Colin Welter, Jacob Schwenk, Bahar Kanani, John Van Blargan, Joanne M. Belovich

Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The culture of Scenedesmus dimorphus at the laboratory scale has often been in standard microalgae media, such as 3N-Basal Bold medium (3N-BB), which contains 15 different chemicals. Given the extremely tight profit margins of large-scale production of biofuel from microalgae, it is important to identify the minimally sufficient quantities of nutrients necessary to maximize lipid productivity. The individual and interactive effects of six groupings of the components of 3N-BB medium on growth rate, lipid content, and total biomass yield of S. dimorphus were determined. Trace metal and vitamin concentrations were reduced to 1/6 the level of 3N-BB medium without adversely …