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Determining the optimal nitrogen source for large-scale cultivation of filamentous cyanobacteria

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Abstract

As the world’s population continues to increase and the adverse effects of anthropomorphic CO2 intensify, it is becoming increasingly important to develop biofuels and chemicals from sustainable resources. Filamentous cyanobacteria, including Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, have emerged as a promising source of renewable chemicals and biofuels due to their minimal nutrient requirements and the relative ease with which they can be genetically engineered to produce a diversity of products. This study evaluated the effects of several nitrogen sources on the growth of Anabaena sp. PCC 7120, and then performed an environmental comparative study on a theoretical large-scale production process to down-select to the best nitrogen source. Sodium nitrate and ammonium chloride yielded 65 % more growth compared to the other nitrogen sources evaluated. Ammonium chloride yielded marginal savings of US$22,318 annually, compared to sodium nitrate over a 27-year lifespan of a proposed chemical production facility utilizing filamentous cyanobacteria. Sodium nitrate had substantially greater negative impacts in every environmental category compared to ammonium chloride. For example, sodium nitrate had a ∼threefold greater negative impact in human health, ecosystem quality, and resources categories. Thus, we concluded that ammonium chloride is the preferred nitrogen source in large-scale processes involving filamentous cyanobacteria.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station under grant SD00H398-11. This work was also supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under award No. NNX11AM03A. We acknowledge use of the South Dakota State University Functional Genomics Core Facility supported in part by NSF/EPSCoR Grant No. 0091948 and by the State of South Dakota.

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  1. Department of Biology and Microbiology, South Dakota State University, PO Box 2204A, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA

    Tylor J. Johnson, Isabel C. Isaac, Emily L. Baldwin, Ruanbao Zhou & William R. Gibbons

  2. Department of Microbiology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Tylor J. Johnson

  3. Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering Department, South Dakota State University, PO Box 2120, Brookings, SD, 57007, USA

    Arash Jahandideh & Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan

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  1. Tylor J. Johnson
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  2. Arash Jahandideh
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Correspondence to Tylor J. Johnson.

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Johnson, T.J., Jahandideh, A., Isaac, I.C. et al. Determining the optimal nitrogen source for large-scale cultivation of filamentous cyanobacteria. J Appl Phycol 29, 1–13 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0923-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0923-3

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