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ScienceDirect
Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 27463–27471 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings
2214-7853 © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of 11th Panhellenic Scientific Conference on Chemical Engineering.
PSCCE_2017
Scale-up and intensification of a microalgae cultivation process for
the production of high-added value biochemicals
Giannis Penloglou
a
, Christos Chatzidoukas
b
, Costas Kiparissides
a,b,
*
a
Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute (CPERI), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Thermi, Thessaloniki,
57001, Greece
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), Thessaloniki, 54124, Greece
Abstract
The upscale and intensification of the Stichococcus sp. cultivation process was accomplished in this work with the prospect of
maximizing the production of high-added value biochemicals, namely, carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. Initially, this study
focused on the successful scale-up of individual strategies, developed experimentally for the optimal production of biomass
and/or selected biochemicals in flasks to the photo-bioreactor level. Thereupon, further bioprocess performance improvement
was facilitated by the manipulation of key-process variables. It was found that the light intensity time-profile, coupled with the
culture agitation time-profile, exhibited the major impact on the biomass growth and biochemicals accumulation. In addition, the
aeration, nitrogen source and CO
2
feeding rates significantly affected the overall bioprocess behavior. Emphasis was also placed
on the progressive adaptation of the above process variable, in association with the culture growth rate and physiological state.
Thus, a satisfactory transition of the process operation from the smaller to the larger scale was achieved. The operational policy
designated for the maximization of the total biochemical products concentration was of primary priority for scaling-up to the
photo-bioreactor level. Subsequently, additional strategies were designed for the intensified production of either carbohydrates,
or proteins or lipids, as targeted products. The analysis of the theoretical predictions vs. the experimental results revealed the
significant qualitative and quantitative effect of the selected conditions on the culture efficiency and resulted to the identification
of individual optimization strategies, depending on the intended bioproduct.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of 11th Panhellenic Scientific Conference on Chemical Engineering.
Keywords: Microalgae; Scale-up; Process intensification; Photo-bioreactor; Stichococcous sp.; Biomass; Carbohydrates; Proteins; Lipids
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +30-2310-498-161; fax: +30-2310-498-160.
E-mail address: costas.kiparissides@cperi.certh.gr