Lipid Production Capacity of a Newly Characterized Cyanobacterial Strain Synechocystis sp. MH01: A Comparative Performance Evaluation of Cyanobacterial Lipid-Based Biodiesel

Cyanobacteria have been the focus of extensive researches because of their high potential for the development of new generations of useful natural compounds with vast applications. For the entire last ten years, a lot of attention has been dedicated to the cyanobacterial lipids as a main source of valuable materials for clean energy production. As there is a direct relationship between biofuel properties and compositional characteristics of fatty acids, a selected lipid-producing cyanobacterial strain was examined and analyzed in terms of fatty acid composition. The biodiesel quality parameters were carefully examined as well. A cyanobacterial strain was isolated from waterfalls in the northern part of Iran and identified as Synechocystis sp. MH01. The fatty acids profile of the selected strain, as tested in various culture conditions, was analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and compared with control subjects to further validating the biodiesel quality parameters. The autotrophic cultivation of Synechocystis sp. MH01 resulted in biomass and lipid productivity of 109 mg.L-1 day-1 and 22.89 mg.L-1day-1, respectively. The mixotrophic cultivation of MH01 strain in sucrose-containing medium led to an approximately 1.8 and 1.22 fold increase in biomass and lipid productivity compared with the autotrophic condition. The addition of glycine to BG11 medium caused up to ~1.3 and ~1.18 fold increase in biomass and lipid productivity compared with control subjects. The analysis of qualitative parameters of the biodiesel, as derived from the lipids, indicated that Synechocystis sp. MH01 has a high ability for lipid production under optimal culture conditions. It seems feasible to evolve the Synechocystis sp. MH01 further particularly for more lipid production as a promising primary raw material for biofuel production through fine-tuning of medium composition.