Control of chitin nanofiber production by the lipid‐producing diatom Cyclotella Sp. through fed‐batch addition of dissolved silicon and nitrate in a bubble‐column photobioreactor

Diatoms are single‐celled algae that make cell walls of nanopatterned biogenic silica called frustules through metabolic uptake of dissolved silicon and its templated condensation into biosilica. The centric marine diatom Cyclotella sp. also produces intracellular lipids and the valued coproduct chitin, an N‐acetyl glucosamine biopolymer that is extruded from selected frustule pores as pure nanofibers. The goal of this study was to develop a nutrient feeding strategy to control the production of chitin nanofibers from Cyclotella with the coproduction of biofuel lipids. A two‐stage phototrophic cultivation process was developed where Stage I set the cell suspension to a silicon‐starved state under batch operation, and Stage II continuously added silicon and nitrate to the silicon‐starved cells to enable one more cell doubling to 4 × 10⁶ cells mL^?1. The silicon delivery rate was set to enable a silicon‐limited cell division rate under cumulative delivery of 0.8 mM Si and 1.2 mM nitrate (1.5:1 mol N/mol Si) over a 4‐ to 14‐day addition period. In Stage II, both cell number and chitin production were linear with time. Cell number and the specific chitin production rate increased linearly with increasing silicon delivery rate to achieve cumulative product yields of 13 ± 1 mg chitin/10⁹ cells and 33 ± 3 mg lipid/10⁹ cells. Therefore, chitin production is controlled through cell division, which is externally controlled through silicon delivery. Lipid production was not linearly correlated to silicon delivery and occurred primarily during Stage I, just after the complete co‐consumption of both dissolved silicon and nitrate. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:407–415, 2017