Kriechbaum, R., Kopp, J., & Spadiut, O. (2023, December 12). Repurposing side streams from the potato processing industry by Chlorella vulgaris [Poster Presentation]. AlgaEurope 23, Prag, Czechia.
As the human population is rising, the need for novel protein sources and a reduction of greenhouse gas emission is of increasing importance. An approach tackling both concerns at once, is given via mixotrophic microalgal cultivation. Microalgae can be cultivated on non-arable land and require less space than the production of currently established protein sources, such as meat and soy.
Side streams from a potato processing company have been screened for biomass productivities, protein and chlorophyll content in Chlorella vulgaris. The side streams were investigated, with the goal to minimize the pretreatments needed, maximize biomass productivities and increase the nutritional properties of the microalgal biomass. All of the experiments were compared to a state-of the art cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris in BG11 medium. The best performing run was upscaled into a photobioreactor cultivation.
In this study we showed that, the side streams obtained from potato processing industry only require sterilization and can be implemented directly, without additional medium supplementation. The best performing side stream, grew similarly to the state of the art cultivation with BG11, resulting in an increased specific protein content of 46.43 ± 6.48 % (w/w) compared to 37.93 ± 2.21 % (w/w) in BG11, resulting in an overall higher protein productivity by 30 %. Based on the physiological data gained here, we further calculated possibilities of upscaling this cultivation approach to a tubular photobioreactor system allowing total usage of the side-stream in a continuous cultivation mode.
Results demonstrated in this study showed the feasibility of microalgal cultivation on a side stream for the production of biomass applicable in food or feed approaches, being a feasible waste-to value approach.
