Growth parameters and biochemical composition of the green microalga Chlorella vulgaris cultivated under different mixotrophic conditions were determined and compared to those obtained from a photoautotrophic control culture. Mixotrophic microalgae showed higher specific growth rate, final biomass concentration and productivities of lipids, starch and proteins than microalgae cultivated under p...

Plant cell suspension cultures are widely used for the production of recombinant proteins and secondary metabolites. One of the most important steps during process development is the optimization of yields by testing different cultivation parameters, including the components of the growth medium. However, we have shown that the biomass yield of a cell suspension culture derived from the pear cu...

Soil compaction was identified as the cause of ‘growth stunting disease’ in sultana grapes and ‘red death’ in cotton at the Lower Orange River and Vaalharts irrigation schemes. In an experiment growth stunting disease was eradicated completely and yields of sultanas increased substantially by deep cultivation, which eliminated compacted soil layers. Ripping increased the quality of tobacco, and...

In this paper we assess the benefits and costs of introducing biologically contained genetically modified (GM) crops, with an application to the potential introduction of GM tomatoes and eggplants in Italy and Spain. Such crops possess both the standard beneficial GM traits, and they prevent introgression of transgenes from GM crops to their conventional or wild relatives, thereby adding to the...

Shifting cultivation in the Nghe An Province of Vietnam’s Northern Mountain Region produces a characteristic land-cover pattern of small and larger fields. The pattern is the result of farmers cultivating either individually or in spatially clustered groups. Using spatially explicit agent-based modelling, and relying on empirical data from fieldwork and observations for parameterization of vari...

Microalgae are a promising alternative for sustainable biofuel production, but production yields and costs present a significant bottleneck. Here, the use of glycerol and xylose to boost the lipid yield was evaluated using ten strains from the Université de Montréal collection of microalgae. This report shows that some microalgal strains are capable of mixotrophic and heterotrophic growth on xy...

The potential of microalgae biomass production for low-cost commodities—biofuels and animal feeds—using sunlight and CO2 is reviewed. Microalgae are currently cultivated in relatively small-scale systems, mainly for high value human nutritional products. For commodities, production costs must be decreased by an order of magnitude, and high productivity algal strains must be developed that can b...

BACKGROUND Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has come to be seen as one of the most viable technologies to provide the negative carbon dioxide emissions needed to constrain global temperatures. In practice, algal biotechnology is the only form of BECCS that could be realized at scale without compromising food production. Current axenic algae cultivation systems lack robustness, ...

Microalgae have increasingly gained research interest as a source of lipids for biodiesel production. The wet way processing of harvested microalgae was suggested and evaluated with respect to the possible environmental impacts and production costs. This study is focused on the three key steps of the suggested process: flocculation, water recycling, and extraction of lipids. Microalgae strains ...

BACKGROUND Microalgal oil is a promising alternative feedstock for biodiesel fuel (BDF). Mixotrophic cultivation with glycerol, the primary byproduct of BDF production, may be used to optimize BDF production. This strategy would reduce costs through glycerol recycling and improve lipid productivity and biomass productivity by overcoming the growth retardation caused by decreased light penetrati...