Autotrophic cultivation of Botryococcus braunii for the production of hydrocarbons and exopolysaccharides in various media

Growth of Botryococcus braunii was studied using different autotrophic media such as bold basal medium (BBM), and bold basal with ammonium carbonate (BBMa), BG11, modified Chu 13 medium. Among the different autotrophic media used, BG11 was found to be the best medium for biomass and hydrocarbon production, although B. braunii showed appreciable level of growth and biomass production in all the tested media. The culture maintained at 16:8 h light and dark cycle with 1.2±0.2 klux light intensity at 25±1 °C temperature was found to be the best for growth (2.0 and 2.8 g L−1 of biomass was produced by the B. braunii strains SAG 30.81 and LB-572, respectively) and hydrocarbon production (46% and 33%, respectively, by SAG 30.81 and LB 572 strains on dry weight basis) whereas continuous illumination with agitation at 90 rpm had maximum influence for the production of exopolysaccharides. The results of the present study indicate that the organism can acclimatize to different culture conditions and to a wide range of culture media with production of more than one metabolite.