Scaling-Up and Semi-Continuous Cultivation of Locally Isolated Marine Microalgae Tetraselmis striata in the Subtropical Island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain)

Abstract

The goal of this study was to determine the feasibility of the large-scale cultivation of locally isolated Tetraselmis striata in different open ponds in Gran Canaria. The biomass productivities were 24.66 ± 0.53 kgDW in 32 days (28.9 t/ha/year) for 8000 L indoors, 42.32 ± 0.81 kgDW in 43 days (38.8 t/ha/year) for an 8000 L pond outdoors, and 54.9 ± 0.58 kgDW in 28 days (19.6 t/ha/year) for a 45,000 L pond outdoors. The photosynthetic efficiencies were 1.45 ± 0.03% for an 8000 L pond indoors, 1.95 ± 0.04% for 8000 L outdoors. and 1.10 ± 0.01% for a 45,000 L pond outdoors. The selected strain was fast-growing (µ = 0.21 day−1) and could be rapidly scaled up to 45,000 L; it formed healthy cultures that maintained high photosynthetic activity during long-term cultivation and provided stable biomass productivities, able to grow on urea, which acted as a cheap and effective grazer control. The obtained biomass is a good source of proteins and has an FA profile with a high content of some nutritionally important fatty acids: oleic, α-linolenic (ALA) and EPA. The high ash content in the biomass (>35%) can be reduced by the implementation of additional washing steps after the centrifugation of the culture.