Semi-continuous culture methods
AssigneeMara Renewables Corporation
InventorsZhiyong Sun, Michael Milway, Kevin Berryman, Mercia Valentine, Roberto E. Armenta, Laura Purdue
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided herein are methods of culturing a microorganism. The methods include providing a container comprising one or more microorganisms in a medium, which has a first carbon to nitrogen ratio; culturing the microorganisms until the culture reaches a threshold indicator; harvesting a portion of the culture while maintaining the majority of the culture in the container; and adding fresh medium comprising a second carbon to nitrogen ratio to the container with the majority of the culture comprising the microorganisms.
Claims20
A method of producing a biomass of oil-producing microorganisms comprising the steps of:
- (a) culturing the oil-producing microorganisms in a container with a medium comprising a first carbon to nitrogen ratio until the culture reaches a threshold indicator, wherein the threshold indicator is the concentration of carbon in the culture medium and wherein the concentration of carbon is at or near zero;
- (c) harvesting a 5% to 20% of the culture and maintaining the majority of the culture in the container;
- and
- (d) promoting production of the biomass of oil-producing microorganisms by adding fresh medium to the container at a volume of substantially the same volume as the harvested portion, wherein the fresh medium comprises a second carbon to nitrogen ratio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.