Hello, everyone! I am working on microalgal-bacterial processes for wastewater treatment and encountering a problem.
It is generally accepted and widely used that bacterial cells can be represented by the chemical formula of C5H7O2N. What is the most accepted microalgal or algal empirical formula, which has been generally used? Is it C5H8.9O1.8N0.6?
Why do microalgae generally have a lower nitrogen content than bacteria just as the plant to animal? possibly bacause of less protein in the microalgae than bacteria. So why?
I would be greatly appreciated if you can answer my question with references.
Interesting question. Generally, algae are thought to have a higher capacity in assimilating nitrogen, while with lower nitrogen content. Why?
I think some microalgae which have a large fraction of protein in its cell, might contain more Nitrogen than bacteria cell.
Spirulina and Chlorella are amazing micro algae with huge benefits.
Here is another opinion:
In simple terms biosynthesis can be described by the following chemical equations where ammonium and nitrate are the nitrogen sources, respectively: In the above equations, the chemical formula C106H263 O110N16 represents algal biomass. In addition to nutrient availability, algal biomass production also depends on light energy. So the equation above is just showing us the role of algae in wastewater treatment by production biomass
Randrianarison, G., Ashraf, M.A. (2017): Microalgae: a potential plant for energy production, Geology, Ecology, and Landscapes, VOL. 1, NO. 2, 104–120 https://doi.org/10.1080/24749508.2017.1332853
Best regards
Vit
Nitrogen content of any organism generally depends on both nitrogen availability in the growth medium and its gowth rate. I assume (without knowing) algal cultures might be under both CO2 and light limitation, both limit the growth rate of an organisms. One should compare specific growth rate of both algal and bacterial cultures. I assume bacterial cultures grow at much higher speed than algal cultures therefore this result in lower nitrogen content in algal cultures. Generally bacterial cultures grow at carbon limited, nitrogen sufficient conditions. This will definetely affect the final composition of the biomass. Therefore the average composition of biomass used wastewater treatment books are an approximation and for fine tuned studies experiemntally measured compositions should be used. Such approach are widely used especially in biotechnology literature.
- Badges
- Science topic