Maximização da produção de lipídeos e pigmentos pela microalga Desmodesmus sp

Abstract

Microalgae can be considered great allies in the context of environmental sustainability, since they are potential sources of a large amount of bioproducts. Among the products of high added value and of biotechnological interest are lipids and pigments, the latter comprising chlorophylls and carotenoids. Lipids can be applied in the biofuel and food industries, and pigments play an important role in the raw materials of the pharmaceutical, food supplement and cosmetic industries. In this work the microalgae Desmodesmus sp. was submitted to different culture conditions, where the nutritional concentrations of micronutrients and macronutrients and spectral ranges were varied, with the objective of maximizing the production of lipids and pigments in each condition. The results of the production of bioproducts in cultures with different amounts of micronutrients and in different spectral ranges were evaluated by analysis of variance - ANOVA at 10% level and by the test of means comparison - Tukey, which suggested the dispensation of micronutrient supplementation and the red LED light as being the most conducive to lipid synthesis, which under optimized conditions increased by 23.82%. For photosynthetic pigments, which involve chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total carotenoids, white fluorescent light and micronutrient supplementation were the imposed conditions that most favored their production, which reached 61.19 µg mL-1, 54.41 µg mL-1, 18.07 µg mL-1, respectively.