FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (FTIR) AS A NOVEL TOOL FOR THE ANALYSIS AND MONITORING OF BIOMASS QUALITY IN A PHOTOBIOREACTOR FOR LIPID PRODUCTION FROM MICROALGAE

摘要

The assessment of biomass quality in productive processes requires the application of methodologies that are time consuming, costly and often technically challenging. At present, it is hard to monitor the biomass of a productive culture system with high frequency; this can substantially delay the correction of problems and may cause substantial losses. We have developed methodologies for the rapid, inexpensive, extraction-less and easy evaluation of the biomass generated in a photobioreactor that use FTIR spectrometry for the monitoring of the macromolecular composition of microalgal cells.