Effect of organic carbon sources on growth, lipid production and fatty acid profile in mixotrophic culture of Scenedesmus dimorphus (Turpin) Kützing

Due to non-renewability of fossil fuels and various environmental problems associated with their use, there is a growing interest in producing biodiesel from microalgae. Finding novel microalgal strains with desired characteristics such as rapid growth rates, high lipid productivity, and suitable fatty acid compositions is important for the production of biodiesel. Comparatively, photoautotrophic cultivation of microalgae results in low biomass yields and lipid productivities. Mixotrophic and heterotrophic cultures, in contrast, lead to higher biomass and lipid productivities but their productivities are species specific and depend a lot on the organic carbon source and culture conditions. In the present study, the potential of Scenedesmus dimorphus for biodiesel oil production under mixotrophic culture was investigated. The effects of organic carbon sources (glucose, ethanol and glycerol) on growth, biomass yields, lipid contents, lipid productivities and fatty acids compositions of Scenedesmus dimorphus in mixotrophic cultures were investigated. In comparison to photoautotrophic cultures, mixotrophic cultures produced significantly higher biomass concentration, lipid content, and lipid productivities (P≤0.05) under all the cultivation conditions investigated. The maximum biomass and lipid productivities achieved by mixotrophic culture were 83.88±0.05 and 17.11±0.04 mg L−1 day−1 respectively which are more than 2.6 and 3.1 folds higher than those obtained under photoautotrophic condition. Using glucose as the organic carbon source was better than ethanol and glycerol in terms of biomass and lipid productivities (glucose > ethanol > glycerol). The majority of the produced fatty acids were composed of C16 and C18 fatty acids. The two most abundant fatty acids in all the cultures were linolenic and palmitic acids. The values of biodiesel properties of oil obtained from S. dimorphus are within the American (ASTM D6751) and European (EN 14214) biodiesel specifications. The results show that S. dimorphus has good potentials for biodiesel oil production and that the productivity can be enhanced by mixotrophic cultivation.