The semi-continuous cultivation of Nostoc flagelliforme cells

Abstract

The semi-continuous cultivation is an important technique for large-scale liquid photoautotrophic cultivation of microalages, in which the excessive cells can be removed and the nutrient elements in the culture medium can be supplemented in time. In this paper, the semi-continuous cultivation of Nostoc flagelliforme cells was conducted and the cultivation conditions were optimised in order to achieve maximum biomass production. After single factor and Box-Behnken experiment with 15 days, the largest biomass amount (0.305 g/l) can be harvested at the best culture conditions (update rate 33%, update cycle 1 day, and sodium nitrate concentration 1.6 g/l). This study offered important basic data for the implementation of large-scale photoautotrophic cultivation of N. flagelliforme cells.