Phycoerythrin Accumulation of Porphyridium cruentum Culture at Indoor Tubular Photobioreactor

Abstract

Microalgae are used in aquaculture and various industrial fields such as pharmaceuticals, feed, food, agriculture, and energy. Microalgae is a potential natural food coloring agent as pigments and contain bioactive components such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in their composition. Porphyridium cruentum is a red alga with the ability to accumulate valuable pigments biomolecules such as phycoerythrin (PE), chlorophyll, and other carotenoids. In this study, P. cruentum was cultured for 51 days at the indoor pilot scale tubular photobioreactor (PBR). The highest cell number was 31.84 x 106 cells mL-1 and the highest specific growth rate was determined as 0.80. Total phycobiliprotein and phycoerythrin amounts were reached 0.252 ± 0.009 mg mL-1 and 0.224 ± 0.007 mg mL-1 at the early exponential phase, respectively.