• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.288-294
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• 2013

Recently, sustainable production of biofuel using algal biomass is being pursued because of its enormous potential. First and foremost, securing superior strains to develop an efficient production system for algal biodiesel through screening or genetic improvement of microalgae is necessary. The genus of Botryococcus is regarded as one of the superior microalgae for biodiesel production due to its ability to accumulate high amounts of lipids and hydrocarbons. However, its low growth rate is a bottleneck for large-scale production and commercialization. The purpose of this study is to obtain indigenous Botryococcus strains which possess high lipid content and biomass productivity. The Botryococcus sp. was isolated from the Seobu Reservoir in Jeju Island and identified as Botryococcus sudeticus J2 by comparative analysis of 18s rRNA gene and ITS regions. The biomass productivity and lipid content of B. sudeticus J2 were 0.116 g $L^{-1}day^{-1}$ and 40.1% of dry wt., respectively. This was higher than the value of B. braunii UTEX 572, which is widely regarded as a superior strain among Botryococcus species. The relatively high growth rate of B. sudeticus J2 was achieved under a light intensity of 240 ${\mu}mol$ photons $m^{-2}s^{-1}$ with ambient air spargingwhen compared to 120 ${\mu}mol$ photons $m^{-2}s^{-1}$ with 2% $CO_2$ supply. In summary, it is likely that the isolated B. sudeticus J2 can be used for the mass cultivation and biodiesel production.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.469-476
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• 2014

The focus of this study was to observe the growth of Chlorella sp., Nannochloris sp., and Botryococcus braunii under mixotrophic conditions (i.e., added glycerol) with the aim of increasing the growth of biomass and algae oil content. A significant growth of biomass was obtained when grown in glycerol rich environment comparing to autotrophic conditions. 5 g/L glycerol yielded the highest biomass concentration for these strains. Mixotrophic conditions improved both the growth of the microalgae and the accumulation of triacylglycerols (TAGs). The maximum amount of TAG in Botryococcus braunii was reached in the growth medium with 10 g/L glycerol and Chlorella sp., Nannochloris sp. with 2 g/L glycerol. The content of saturated fatty acids of Chlorella sp., Nannochloris sp., and Botryococcus braunii was found to be 34.94, 14.23 and 13.39%, and the amount of unsaturated fatty acids was 65.06, 85.78 and 86.61% of total fatty acids, respectively. The fatty acid profiles of the oil for the culture possibility met the necessary requirements and are, therefore, promising resource for biofuel production.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.687-691
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• 2003

Whole-cell immobilization of the hydrocarbon rich microalgae, Botryococcus braunii and B. protuberans, in alginate beads under air-lift batch cultures resulted in a significant increase in chlorophyll, carotenoid, dry weight, and 1ipid contents at stationary and resting growth phases, as compared to free cells. Photosynthetic activity in both the species, of Botryococcus was enhanced, relative to free cells, at any growth phase of cultures. Immobilization exerted a protective influence on ageing of the cultures as reflected by higher chlorophyll and dry weight contents. Entrapment also stabilized the chlorophyll and carotenoid contents even at stationary and resting phases as compared to free cells in both the species.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.153-158
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• 1999

This study was conducted to investigate the production of lipid, and removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from swine wastewater by Botryococcus braunii UTEX 572 in a tubular bioreactor. The rate of dry cell weight increase of B. braunii was highest at 20.1mg/l/din a modified Chu 13 medium at $25^{\circ}C$. Under the above conditions, the rate of lipid content increase was also highest at 6.1mg/l/d. The lipid content of B. braunii on a dry weight basis ranged from 30.5 to 34.1% with an average value of 32.3%. When B. braunii was cultured in a secondary-treated swine wastewater diluted to 50% with tap water, the rate of dry cell weight increase was 18.6mg/l/d and the rate of lipid content increase was 6.0mg/l/d. The lipid content ranged from 30.3 to 34.2%. No significant difference was observed between lipid content and growth conditions. The removal rates of nitrogen and phosphorus in swine wastewater were 43.9% and 41.7%, respectively, after 14 days of incubation.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.166-171
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• 1999

This study was conducted to investigate the removal rate of nitrogen and phosphorus, and lipid production from a swine wastewater by Botryococcus braunii UTEX 572 in an outdoor photobioreactor. B. braunii successfully predominated in competition with bacteria and other algae, especially Oscillatoria, which were grown spontaneously in a secondary-treated swine wastewater, under the conditions of incubation temperature at $25^{\circ}C$ and increased inoculum amount at 287mg/l. There was a significant relationship between dry weight of B. braunii and absorbance of culture solution at 680mn(r2=0.967), suggesting that the latter is as good as the former commonly used for the measurement of algal biomass which is considerably time-consuming. The removal rates of COD, TOC, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus from the swine wastewater were 33.2$\pm$2.6% and 32.8$\pm$3.2, respectively, which showing no different between them. These results suggested that the mass cultivation of B. braunii in an outdoor photobioreactor could be used for the advanced treatment of swine wastewater and lipid production.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.927-933
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• 2019

A lipid-enriched strain of Botryococcus braunii (UTEX 572) was cultivated in a semi-batch aeration tank to enhance biomass as well as to develop intracellular lipids and fatty acids. A 30 day period of incubation produced 1.39 g/L of biomass and 0.31 g/L of total lipids in the biomass. The grown biomass was pre-treated using several methods to extract the total lipid content efficiently: ultrasonication was found to yield the highest percentage of lipids-namely 19.8% per biomass. Direct heating of biomass in an autoclave also showed better performance than when using only conventional solvent extraction. To enhance the biomass harvest and lipid extraction efficiency, coagulation and flocculation steps were added to the extraction process. It is noteworthy that not only the solvent type but also the solvent/biomass ratio greatly affected efficiency. In addition, the moisture content of the harvested(wet) biomass affected the efficiency significantly. This study elucidated the need for future research on optimizing this extraction process.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.932-937
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• 2004

In situ extraction by organic solvent was studied in order to improve the recovery yield of hydrocarbon from the culture of Botryococcus braunii, a green colonial microalga. When the solvent mixture of octanol as an extractive solvent and n-octane as a biocompatible solvent was added to a two-phase column, the algal growth was seriously inhibited, even at a low concentration of polar octanol. Therefore, a two-stage cell-recycle extraction process was proposed to improve the contact area between the organic phase and the aqueous phase. The hydrocarbon recovery with in situ cell-recycle extraction showed a three-fold increase (57% of cell) in yield over that with two-phase extraction. In addition, over 60% of the hydrocarbon could be recovered without serious cell damage by downstream separation when this process was applied to the culture broth after batch fermentation.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.255-259
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• 1992

The effect of nitrate, nitrite and ammonia as inorganic nitrogen sources on the modulation of nitrogen metabolism of Botryococcus braunii UTEX.-572 has been studied under aeration. The primary process in the regulation of nitrogen metabolism by this alga has the nitrate uptake system. This uptake of nitrate operation was immediately inhibited by the presence of 0.5 mM of ammonium and reversed by 0.2∼0.3 mM ammonium. When cell were exposed to 5 mM of ammonium for 24 hours the activity of nitrate reductase became inactive.

• Journal of Marine Bioscience and Biotechnology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2015

Sulfated polysaccharides from plants or seaweed are well known for antioxidant, anticoagulant activity or other biological activities. The aim of the present study is to optimize the condition for the isolation of water soluble polysaccharides (WSP) and evaluate the biological activity. WSP was isolated from defatted microalgae B. braunii using chlorosulfonic acid or sulfuric acid. Among WSP isolated using sulfuric acid showed the lowest the content of total carbohydrates (g/L), whereas showed the highest antioxidant activity. Also the preliminary structural analysis of WSP was performed by FT-IR spectroscopy analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.134-141
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• 2015

The focus of this study was to observe the growth of Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus braunii under mixotrophic conditions (i.e., added acorn) with the aim of increasing biomass and triacylglycerols (TAGs) content. The result of investigation indicated that the acorn contains a lot of carbonate (87.29%) and glucose (97.99 mg%). A significant growth of biomass was obtained when grown in acorn rich environment comparing to autotrophic conditions. 3 g/L acorn yielded the highest biomass concentration for these strains. Thus, the biomass productivity with 3 g/L acorn was obtained 2.31 times and 2.10 times higher than that of authotrophic conditions for Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus braunii, respectively. The maximum amount of TAGs was reached 14.35% and 18.41% for Chlorella vulgaris and Botryococcus braunii, respectively, in the growth medium with 5 g/L acorn. The effect of acorn could enhance the investigated microalgae growth, biomass productivity and TAGs content. This provides a feasible way to reduce the cost of bioenergy production from microalgae.