Comparative Analysis of three Growth Medium for Arthrospira platensis Cultivation based on Lab-Scale Results

Arthrospira platensis is a rich source of essential amino acids, vitamins and it is used as a feedstock for energy sources. The high cost of the growth medium used in its cultivation is a problem for increasing the production viability. The present study aimed to compare the technical viability and the cost elementsin different growth medium for A. platensis cultivation. For that purpose, it was proposed the use of three different growth medium, named as M1, M2 and M3 in a lab scale. The growth of the treatments presented a microbial process with characteristic phases. M1, M2 and M3 maximum concentration (Xmax), productivity (Px) and the maximum specific growth rate (μmax) showed no significant difference among treatments. However, M3 presented the lowest cost element, about 45.75% less than the M1 and 38.92% lower than M2. Therefore, the comparison enabled the result that M3 presented the best performance to be used, thus increasing profitability of this production in a lab-scale analysis.