Abstract
Aurantiochytrium sp has been recognized as one of the most suitable sources of high valuable fatty acids (FA) including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), docosapentaenoic acid, arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and saturated FA; however it’s necessary to improve total biomass production and high value FA specially DHA.
The aim of this research is to improve the production of biomass and DHA on the novel Aurantiochytrium sp NYH-2 strain via an optimization of culture time (2, 3 and 5 days) and removal of culture (20, 50 and 80% v/v) using a 23 experimental design.
It was found that in order to improve biomass production a large amount of culture media must be replaced (>90%), however after the third cycle biomass production was reduced from 10 g/L to 9 g/L; similarly under the same conditions lipids and DHA production increased from 15% to 20% (w/w) and from 3 to 5% (w/w) respectively in the first 3 cycles and then reduced in cycle 5. Finally results suggest that in a semi-continuous process the algae is only functional 3 cycles (9 to 12 days) and in order to improve total biomass lipids and DHA production, a volume of culture media between 80-92% must be removed every 3-4 days.
