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Q 1: Summary of The Research Paper: CHEMMAT 757 Assignment 1: Paper Discussion

[1] The paper investigates how nitrogen, light, and residence time impact the growth kinetics of the cyanobacterium Anabaena PCC 7122. A model was developed to determine growth rates based on these influencing factors. [2] Photosynthetic organisms are useful for bioproduct and biofuel production due to their rapid growth rates using sunlight and carbon dioxide. However, scaling production poses challenges from variables like light penetration and intensity. [3] The paper finds that the optimal conditions for growth of Anabaena PCC 7122 are a temperature of 32°C, light intensity of around 3,800 mmol photons gx−1d−1, and a nitrogen concentration of approximately 13

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150 views2 pages

Q 1: Summary of The Research Paper: CHEMMAT 757 Assignment 1: Paper Discussion

[1] The paper investigates how nitrogen, light, and residence time impact the growth kinetics of the cyanobacterium Anabaena PCC 7122. A model was developed to determine growth rates based on these influencing factors. [2] Photosynthetic organisms are useful for bioproduct and biofuel production due to their rapid growth rates using sunlight and carbon dioxide. However, scaling production poses challenges from variables like light penetration and intensity. [3] The paper finds that the optimal conditions for growth of Anabaena PCC 7122 are a temperature of 32°C, light intensity of around 3,800 mmol photons gx−1d−1, and a nitrogen concentration of approximately 13

Uploaded by

Preethika Ganesan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Student ID: 555087207 Preethika Ganesan

CHEMMAT 757 Assignment 1: Paper Discussion

Overall summary and estimation of the paper:

Q 1: Summary of the research paper

The researcher intended to investigate the role of nitrogen, light and residence time on growth
kinetics in addition to retrieving the value of the maximum specific growth rate of Anabaena
PCC 7122. It can be inferred that growth rate of the cyanobacterium is influenced by not only
light and temperature, but may also be limited by the reduced concentration of dissolved
atmospheric nitrogen. The researchers have been successful in establishing a comprehensive
model to determine the growth kinetics taking into account all the influencing factors.

Introduction:

Q2: Autotrophs:

These are organism which can produce their own foods with the use of inorganic sources.

Q3: Photosynthetic organisms importance in bioproducts and biofuels production:

The rapid growth rate of photosynthetic organisms using natural resources such as oxygen and
sunlight, as well as, they can be produced in a large scale over a small area. Thus, they are of
interest in bioproducts and biofuel production.

Q4: Challenges involved in modeling the growth of photosynthetic organisms

The control and optimization of the photosynthetic organisms are very challenging. Also to
obtain the same production observed in lab scale to the industrial scale is tidepus due to various
factors interventions such as light penetration, intensity of light, temperature, etc.

Q5: Bioreactor used by the authors of this paper propose to solve the problems-
Continuous photobioreactor.

Materials and Methods :

Q6: True/ False

a. Anabaena PCC 7122 converts light energy for growth. - True


b. At Topt, ∅ ¿T) = 1. - True
c. Nitrogen is a rate-limiting substrate. - True
d. The specific maintenance rate (μe) was determined using linear regression. - True
e. Heterocysts are differentiated cyanobacterial cells that fix carbon. – False
Student ID: 555087207 Preethika Ganesan

Q7: Theoretical yield of A. PCC 7122 cells from fixing nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2)
(i.e., Yx/N2, Yx/CO2).

Theoritical biomass yield (Yxs) = - 𝚫 X / 𝚫SG,

Where 𝚫 X is the amount of biomass produced and 𝚫SG is the substrate mass actually directed
into biomass production.

Yx/N2 = 0.249 g/g

Yx/CO2 = 0.278 g/g

Q8: Cardinal temperatures for cell growth – 31.74º±0.13 ºC

Q9: The respirometric tests are used to measure the oxygen production or consumption which
determines the kinetic parameters Tmax, Tmin and Topt .

Results and Discussion :

Q 10: Impact of residence time on biomass concentration and volumetric productivity


under low light intensity

The biomass concentration increased with increase in residence time, however a flattening was
observed over time due to the self-shading effect of cells. Whereas, biomass volumetric
productivity increased with decrease in residence time, paving way for the simultaneous increase
in biomass growth rate.

Q 11: Impact of light intensity and nitrogen source on maintenance energy and growth rate

Both maintenance energy and growth rate increased with increase in light intensity upto a point
of saturation, beyond which a decrease was seen due to inhibition effects. A similar pattern was
observed with respect to nitrogen concentration as well.

Q 12: Conditions for optimal growth

Temperature: 32ºC

Light intensity: approx. 3,800 mmol photons gx−1d−1

Nitrogen concentration: approx.. 13 mgL-1

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