Aeration strategy for biofilm cultivation of the microalga Scenedesmus dimorphus.

Objective: Biofilm cultivation of microalgae may be useful for biofuel production. However, many aspects for this cultivation method have not been well assessed. Accordingly, aeration strategy for biofilm cultivation of Scenedesmus dimorphus has been explored.

Results: Biomass, lipid and triacylglycerol (TAG) productivity in increased S. dimorphus as the CO2 concentration increased within 0.038-0.5% and kept constant with further increases. The biomass, lipid and TAG productivity increased with the speed increasing and an obvious threshold point was observed at 6.6 ml(-2) min(-1). The lipid and TAG content was unaffected by the aeration rate.

Conclusions: Both the CO2 concentration as well as aeration speed affected the growth of S. dimorphus in biofilm cultivation. The optimized aeration strategy for biofilm cultivation was continuous air flow enriched with 1% CO2 (v/v) at 6.6 ml(-2) min(-1).