Research Projects

Anabaena sp is one of the most abundant sources of natural phycoerythrin (C-PE) when compared with other microorganisms, and has attracted the market's interest due to numerous health benefits of C-PE. The proposed project includes the development of a C-PE production process from Anabaena sp. BE-42 in the two most relevant photobioreactors, namely the batch photobioreactor, which is currently available in the Bioproducts Processing Research Lab (BPRL), Department of Bioengineering, NIT Agartala, and the tubular photobioreactor, which will be procured from the project. This strain can able to produce 35.62 mg of C-PE per gram of biomass after 30 days of incubation in shake flask containing BG 11 media, which is significantly higher than the C-PE content reported for various cyanobacteria ranging from 22.40 mg/g to 33.85 mg/g. In batch photobioreactor, various parameters such as light intensity and wavelength, pH, temperature, and nutrient input will be varied and optimized in order to increase C-PE yield from 35.62 mg per gram of biomass to 40 mg per gram of biomass. The multi-component kinetics studies will be performed in batch photobioreactor to monitor the growth of microorganisms and production of C-PE at optimum level of process parameters and will provide huge quantitative information which describes biological significance of each parameter with statistical reliability. In a tubular photobioreactor, feed rate and CO2 gas velocity will be optimized to achieve 45 mg C-PE per gram of biomass, and a scale-up calculation will be developed. The development and process modeling of an aqueous two-phase system (ATPE) for recovering 90% food grade C-PE with a purity index greater than 0.7 will be carried out. Biochemical characterization of food grade C-PE will also be performed. For decision-making during process design, a comprehensive cost benefit analysis of two reactors for the production of C-PE will be performed.