B. Cordero et D. Voltolina, VIABILITY OF MASS ALGAL CULTURES PRESERVED BY FREEZING AND FREEZE-DRYING, Aquacultural engineering, 16(4), 1997, pp. 205-211
The microalgae Chaetoceros sp. and Phaeodactylum tricornutum were grow
n in semicontinuous 151 cultures, a volume commonly used for mid-scale
inocula in aquacultural practices. The daily yields were concentrated
and stored by freezing and freeze-drying for up to 1 month. After slo
w or fast freezing without the protective agents glycerol or Me2SO, ne
ither of the microalgae was capable of active growth, while with the c
ryoprotectants slow freezing gave good results after 7 days of storage
at -20 degrees C. After 15 and 30 days, however, microalgae growth wa
s poor, probably due to bacterial contamination. Freeze-drying gave ev
en worse results, which we attribute to severe losses of storage produ
cts after this treatment. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.