Abstracto

Milking of Spirulina Platensis for the Production of Carotenoids by Aqueous Two Phase Bioreactor Systems

R. Mala, V. Karthik, S. Sakthiselvan and S. Saravanababu

The low productivity of algal cultures in the production of high-value compounds is the most significant bottleneck for commercialization of this technology. Cultures in which cell mass is reused for continuous production are proposed as a solution to overcome this problem. Recently, a method was developed in which carotenoids were as harvested from the microalga Sirulina platensis grown in a twophase bioreactor. Specific growth rate was high only during day time. It was 60% at 25 hours and reduced to 30% at 95th hour. 90% of the cells were viable in the presence of propanol. After 24 hours 21% of the cells were viable. Furthermore, microscopic observations showed both dead and live cells after 24 hours and only dead and destroyed cells after 48 hours in aqueous two phase bioreactor systems. Total carotenoids were 135 microgram/L and chlorophylls were 5 microgram/L. So the present investigation reveals that aqueous two phase bioreactor system is an alternative algal technology for milking of Spirulina platensis.