A novel culture medium designed for the simultaneous enhancement of biomass and lipid production by Chlorella vulgaris UTEX 26

A novel culture medium to enhance the biomass and lipid production simultaneously by Chlorella vulgaris UTEX 26 was designed in three stages of optimization. Initially, a culture medium was inferred applying the response surface method to adjust six factors [NaNO₃, NH₄HCO₃, MgSO₄·7H₂O, KH₂PO₄, K₂HPO₄ and (NH₄)₂HPO₄], which were selected on the basement of BBM (Bold's Basal Medium) and HAMGM (Highly Assimilable Minimal Growth Medium) culture media. Afterwards, the nitrogen source compound was optimized to reduce both, ammonium and nitrate concentrations. As result of the optimization process, the proposed culture medium improved 40% the biomass (0.73 g L^-1) compared with the BBM medium and 85% the lipid concentration (281 mg L^-1), with respect to HAMGM medium. Some culture media components concentrations were reduced up to 50%. Gas chromatography analysis revealed that C16:0, C18:0, C18:1, C18:2 and C18:3 were the major fatty acids produced by C. vulgaris UTEX 26.