Biomass and Phycocyanin Production in Spirulina under Various Salt Concentration

Spirulina are multicellular and filamentous blue-green algae that has the health food industry and increasingly as a protein and vitamin supplement. Several studies have proved the importance of Spirulina to be commercialized and sold for therapeutic purposes. Spirulina appears to have considerable potential for development, especially as a small crop for nutritional enhancement, livelihood development and environmental mitigation. Mass production of Spirulina is typically carried out in Zarrouk medium using fresh water. This process consumes large amounts of fresh water: 1000 kg are needed to produce 1 kg Spirulina as a dry powder. Therefore, in this study, 0.1 mg/l NH4NO3, 0.01 and 0.5 mg/l NaNO3 in combination with different concentration of saltlick (0.1-5%) with 1 g/l fertilizer (NPK) were studied to improve the biomass and pigment production for 3 weeks. The high biomass production were obtained in high value of salt. Results demonstrated %2.5 salt in combination with 0.5 mg/l NaNO3 has high amount of Spirulina biomass. Best Phycocyanin content occurred in %0.1 salt without different significant for nitrogen source (α≤0.05). Results in this research showed different concentration of salt has important role in Spirulina growth and pigment production. So that, high biomass production was obtained in high concentration of salt (%2.5) with 0.5 mg/l NaNO3 while Phycocyanin production was increased in low concentration of salt (%0.1) with no nitrogen sources. In this study, 8.7 g/l biomass was obtained during 3 weeks days without any carbon source. Depend on Spirulina application (biomass production or pigment production), these compositions can be use economically for Spirulina production.

Spirulina are multicellular and filamentous blue-green algae that has the health food industry and increasingly as a protein and vitamin supplement. Several studies have proved the importance of Spirulina to be commercialized and sold for therapeutic purposes. Spirulina appears to have considerable potential for development, especially as a small crop for nutritional enhancement, livelihood development and environmental mitigation. Mass production of Spirulina is typically carried out in Zarrouk medium using fresh water. This process consumes large amounts of fresh water: 1000 kg are needed to produce 1 kg Spirulina as a dry powder. Therefore, in this study, 0.1 mg/l NH4NO3, 0.01 and 0.5 mg/l NaNO3 in combination with different concentration of saltlick (0.1-5%) with 1 g/l fertilizer (NPK) were studied to improve the biomass and pigment production for 3 weeks. The high biomass production were obtained in high value of salt. Results demonstrated %2.5 salt in combination with 0.5 mg/l NaNO3 has high amount of Spirulina biomass. Best Phycocyanin content occurred in %0.1 salt without different significant for nitrogen source (α≤0.05). Results in this research showed different concentration of salt has important role in Spirulina growth and pigment production. So that, high biomass production was obtained in high concentration of salt (%2.5) with 0.5 mg/l NaNO3 while Phycocyanin production was increased in low concentration of salt (%0.1) with no nitrogen sources. In this study, 8.7 g/l biomass was obtained during 3 weeks days without any carbon source. Depend on Spirulina application (biomass production or pigment production), these compositions can be use economically for Spirulina production.