Abstract
Photosynthetic microorganisms offer promising perspectives for the sustainable production of value-added compounds. Nevertheless, the cultivation of phototrophic organisms to high cell densities (HCDs) is hampered by limited reactor concepts. Co-cultivation of the photoautotrophic Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 and the chemoheterotrophic P. taiwanensis VLB 120 enabled HCDs up to 51.8 g(CDW) L(-1). Respective biofilms have been grown as a biofilm in capillary flow-reactors, and oxygen evolution, total biomass, as well as the ratio of the two strains, have been followed under various cultivation conditions. Furthermore, biofilm formation on a microscopic level was analyzed via confocal laser scanning microscopy using a custom made flow-cell setup. The concept of mixed trophies co-cultivation was coupled to biotransformation, namely the oxyfunctionalization of cyclohexane to cyclohexanol. For benchmarking, the performance of the phototrophic reaction was compared to the chemical process, and to a biotechnological approach using a heterotrophic organism only. The data presented refer to our research paper "Mixed-species biofilms for high-cell-density application of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 in capillary reactors for continuous cyclohexane oxidation to cyclohexanol" Hoschek et al., 2019.