Heterotrophic mass cultures of Chlorella vulgaris with glucose feeding in fermenters

Abstract

Chlorella vulgaris was heterotrophically cultured in 5, 50, 200, 800, and 4 000 L stirred tank fermenters with glucose feeding, which gave significant improvement in cell density and productivity compared to batch culture. The highest cell dry weight mass concentration reached 43.31 g/L. The specific growth rate was 0.069 h~(-1). The cell productivity was 0.62 g/(L·h). The results suggest Chlorella vulgaris can be heterotrophically produced in stirred tank fermenters for commercial use.