Growth of "Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina)" in a domestic photobioreactor

Abstract

The present work consists in the design and elaboration of a domestic microalgae cultivation kit for Arthrospiraplatensis(Spirulina). The kit includes a vertical photobioreactor, an air pump, the culture medium, the necessary nutrients and a filter to obtain the biomass. The photobioreactor was designed in 3D software and printed with a 3D printer, materials such as the polylactic acid (PLA) and the polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified (PETG) were used. The necessary nutrients have been selected and a trial campaign has been carried out for 6 months to value the influence of seasonality. In this period the evolution of the cultivation has been evaluated in different conditions, using mineral water, usingdomestic water and filtered water with reverse osmosis. The growth of the cultivation was evaluated and its relationship with the consumption of nutrients was analyzed. Also, the influence of location, light and temperature on the cultivation was demonstrated. In this way, considering the experiments carried out in this work, a cultivation protocol has been developed for the domestic production of Spirulina as a simple method for high value food and cosmestic production. The studies carried out demonstrate the capacity of this species to reproduce with different water quality. In addition, the relationship between nutrient consumption and growth of the microalgae was linear. However, there was a great difference in the growth from the warmer to the colder months, both due to the reduction of light and the decrease in temperature. While, the functioning of the photobioreactor designed worked correctly.