Influência da adição de sistema de reflexão luminosa em biorreator no crescimento da microalga Spirulina platensis

Abstract

Microorganisms have had great industrial relevance, among them is the microalgae Spirulina platensis. It presents great market potential that is on the rise for the coming years. Spirulina platensis has application in food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage. The main mode of large-scale production is through raceway-type bioreactors. The raceway bioreactor is an open system, with a large surface area, but with a limitation in the height of the liquid column, as self-shading causes less and less light to reach the cells. Thus, this work evaluates the impact on the growth of the microalgae Spirulina platensis with the placement of a mirror at the bottom of the bioreactor, comparing it with a non-adapted bioreactor. At the end of 24 days of cultivation, a biomass concentration of 4.56 g/L was obtained for the non-adapted bioreactor and 8.55 g/L for the bioreactor adapted with a mirror. Productivity in the mirrorless bioreactor was 0.189 g/L/day and the one with mirror 0.354 g/L/day, the specific velocity was 0.17 day-1 and 0.25 day-1 respectively. An increase of 1,87 times in productivity was observed in the adapted bioreactor compared to the unadapted one, thus showing that the use of mirrors had a positive impact on the growth of the microalgae Spirulina platensis.