Mixotrophic growth offers several advantages: (a) Higher growth rates than
either heterotrophic and photo-autotrophic regimes by shortening growth cycles and
producing higher biomass; (b)
Growth curve of M. inermum under autotrophic, heterotrophic (sodium acetate or glucose) and mixotrophic (sodium acetate or glucose) conditions. Experiment carried out in batch flask cultures. Bars represent standard deviation.
As shown in Fig. 1, a lag phase of growth of
Chlorella sp. was observed for all technical glycerol concentrations.
The sharp increase in concentration was characteristic
of a growth medium with an initial glycerol concentration of
2 g L−1 during the exponential growth phase. A slight growth
in biomass is characteristic of a growth medium with initial
concentrations of 5 or 10 g L−1. Maximum biomass concentrations
of 1.65, 1.92 and 1.70 g L−1 were obtained in the
stationary growth phase in the medium containing 2, 5 and
10 g L−1 glycerol, respectively. In comparison, the highest
concentration achieved using 5 g L−1 of glycerol was 17.7 %
higher than the concentration achieved with Chlorella sp. in
autotrophic medium (BG11 with 120 mg L−1 N), which was
1.58 g L−1.