SPIRULINA

REDISCOVERY OF A 3.5 BILLION YEAR OLD

LIFEFORM
 SPIRULINA

Algae’s uses light energy to break the abundant carbon dioxide and
water molecules into carbon food compounds, releasing free
oxygen…

• Algae's are classified as:

* Micro algae (Spirulina, Chlorella)
* Macro algae ( Seaweed )
* Micro-algae cannot be seen by naked eyes.
* Macro algae can be visible and feel it.

Out of 1500 known species, around 70 species of algae’s

are used for food, food additives, animal feed, fertilizers and
biochemicals.
 SPIRULINA

“ Spirulina“

Scientific Name
"Arthrospira platensis"

Cyanobacteria
A 3.5 billion year old life form
 SPIRULINA

Spirulina platensis, is a multicellular, filamentous

cyanobacterium, consisting of blue-green filaments of
cylindrical cells (1 to 12 μm diameter)

Spirulina grow in environments that are unsuitable

for many other organisms such as:
* Freshwater,
* Brackish lakes,
* Marine environments and
* Alkaline or saline lakes.
 SPIRULINA

• Rod or Disk Shaped.

• Fix nitrogen from air.
• Consume chemical nutrients and energy of the sun to
make their own food.
• Reproduction occurs through binary fission.
• Can tolerate temperature upto 35 to 38 degree
Celsius.
.
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina – Microscopic view
 Well-known species are Spirulina: SPIRULINA
• Spirulina corakiana,
• Spirulina crispum,
• Spirulina labyrinthiformis,
• Spirulina laxa,
• Spirulina laxissima,
• Spirulina major,
• Spirulina meneghiniana,
• Spirulina nordstedtii,
• Spirulina princeps,
• Spirulina subsalsa,
• Spirulina subtilissima,
• Spirulina platensis,
• Spirulina tenerrima or Spirulina weissii
 SPIRULINA
DIFFERENT SPECIES OF SPIRULINA:

• S Planthesis (Arthrospira Fusiform)

• S planthesis – NIES-39
• S planthesis – GEITLER
• S NODOSA
• S PRINCERS WEST & WEST
• Anthrospira FUSIFORM (VORONICHIM)
• Anthrospira MAXIMA
• Anthrospira JENNERI STITZ
 SPIRULINA

Important criteria involved in starting Spirulina farm:

1. Infrastructure development
2. Medium preparation
3. Testing
4. Culture development & Maintaining
5. Harvesting
6. Drying and Packing
7. Marketing
 SPIRULINA

1. INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT:

– Area layout
– Pond design
– Ground infrastructure
– Outside walls and channel dividers
– Pond lining (none, clay, conceret, asphalt, fiberglass, plastic sheeting,
others)
– Agitation (paddle wheels, pumps, airlift, moving board, others)
– Pumping & Harvesting equipments
– Drying equipments
– Packaging equipments
Pond design – Raceway pond SPIRULINA
 SPIRULINA
Pond design – Raceway pond and tanks
Pond design – Centre pivot pond SPIRULINA
Pond design – Cascade pond SPIRULINA
Pond design – Big bag pond system SPIRULINA
Pond design – Photo bio reactor system SPIRULINA
 SPIRULINA

2. Medium Preparation:
1. Water and
2. Nutrients.
Water, most important raw material needed for medium preparation.
– Water should be clean,
– Free from heavy metals,
– Free from chlorides &
– Should be abundantly found.

Nutrients are otherwise called as fertilizers are mainly used for synthetic
medium preparation.
- Fertilizers must be free from additives,
- Good in quality
 SPIRULINA

Sl.No NUTRIENTS FORMULA - 1 FORMULA – 2

1. Sodium Bi Carbonate 8 gms 6 gms

2. Sodium Chloride 5 gms -NIL-

3. Urea .2 gms .38 gms

4. Potassium Sulphate .5 gms .03 gms

5. Magnesium Sulphate .16 gms .03 gms

6. Phosphoric Acid .052 ml .032 ml

7. Ferrous Sulphate .051 ml .050 ml

Ferrous Sulphate preparation: 1 kg FeSO4 + 1 liter HCl + 10 liters of fresh water.

(Can be stored up to one year)
Adding water to fresh pond SPIRULINA
Nutrients dissolved in fresh pond SPIRULINA
Nutrients dissolved in fresh pond SPIRULINA
 SPIRULINA

3. Testing the medium:

1. Scale - For measuring depth of medium

2. Weight Scale - For measuring solid weight
3. Measuring jar - For measuring liquids
4. pH meter - For measuring alkalinity of medium
5. Thermometer - For measuring temperature
6. Hydrometer - For measuring density of the medium
7. Scehhi disk - For measuring growth of the algae
8. Salinity meter - For measuring salt content in the medium
9. TDS &EC - For measuring soluble solids in the medium
10. Spectrophotometer- For measuring growth at diff wavelength
 SPIRULINA

4. Culture development & Maintaining:

After medium is developed the selected Spirulina species to

be innoculated must be taken in clean poonam saree and it
should be lightly rinsed in the medium, so that the selected
strain dissolves in the medium without any cluster.

During innoculation the paddle wheels must be running or

should be mixed with agitators continuously.

Innoculation shall be done most probably in evening due to

avoid high temperature.
 SPIRULINA

Inoculating fresh Spirulina strain into the alkaline medium

 SPIRULINA

Spirulina Seeds dissolved in fresh medium

 SPIRULINA

5. Harvesting:
* Harvesting shall be done in two stages:
1. Dust filtration
2. Sedimentation

1. Dust filtration can be done using simple poonam saree.

2. Sedimentation needs a special sieve with more or less 50
– 60 micron in size placed over filtration trays.
3. Harvesting should be done mostly before sunrise.
4. Harvested Spirulina is called as wet mass.
5. Wet mass must be processed as quick as possible to avoid
nutrient degradation.
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina algae harvested during early morning
 SPIRULINA

Spirulina harvesting trays covered with 60 micron sieve cloth

 SPIRULINA

Filtration trays loaded with clean culture for sedimentation

 SPIRULINA

Sedimentated Spirulina on filtration trays

 SPIRULINA

Spirulina algae scooped from filtration cloth

 SPIRULINA

Harvested Spirulina – Wet mass

 SPIRULINA

6. Drying and Packing:

Harvested Spirulina processing after washing

 SPIRULINA

Spirulina extrusion after dehydration

 SPIRULINA

Extruded Spirulina
 SPIRULINA

Extruded Spirulina kept for drying

 SPIRULINA

Dried Spirulina
 SPIRULINA

Spirulina powder packed in aluminium foil pack

 SPIRULINA

General properties

• Protein - 55% to 70%

• Carbohydrates - 15% to 25%
• Fat - 6% to 8%
• Mineral content - 7% to 13%
• Moisture content - 3% to 7%
• Fiber content - 8% to 10%
 SPIRULINA

General properties:

Phyto nutrients:
• Phycocyanin (blue colour) - 14%
• Chlorophyll (Green colour) - 1%
• Cartenoids (Orange colour) - 47%
• Cryptoxanthine (Yellow colour)
• Porphyrin ( Red colour)
• Xanthophyll
• Echinenone
 SPIRULINA
CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONOF SPIRULINA:
For 10 g dry weight
Content Amount
• Proteins - 6.5 g
• Beta carotene - 14 mg
• Vitamin C - 2 mg
• Thiamin (B1) - 0.37 mg
• Riboflavin(B2) - 0.46 mg
• Niacin - 1.3 mg
• Calcium - 150 mg
• Iron - 18 mg
• Vitamin E - 0.4 mg
• Vitamin B 6 - 0.07 mg
 SPIRULINA
CHEMICAL COMPOSITIONOF SPIRULINA:
For 10 g dry weight
Content Amount

• Vitamin B 12 - 0.02 mg
• Phosphorus - 67 mg
• Magnesium - 32 mg
• Copper - 0.1 mg
• Phycocyanin - 1 500 mg
• Gamma-linoleic acid- 100 mg
• Chlorophyll - 110 mg
 SPIRULINA

Uses of Spirulina:

• It acts as a social and preventive medicine

• Reducing body weight
• Lowers sugar level in blood due to presence of Gamma -
Linolenic acid
• Prevents accumulation of cholesterol
• Beta carotene best anti cancer substance
• Rich in anti oxidants
• Boosts the immune system
• Improves digestion
 SPIRULINA

The artificial production of Spirulina biomass

depends on many factors, the most important of
which are:
1. Light
2. Temperature
3. pH
4. Nutrients
5. Mixing, turbulence & shear and
6. Contamination
 SPIRULINA

1.Light

• Light is the prime source of energy in photo

autotrophic microalgae and as such, has the greatest
influence on the physiology, metabolism and biomass
productivity of microalgae.
 SPIRULINA

Light intensity

• Individual Spirulina filaments are destroyed by

prolonged strong illumination ("photolysis"),
• Cells grown under prolonged high light leads to
decrease in total chlorophyll content followed by
increase in accessory pigments such as carotenoids
like β-carotene.
• full sunlight may not the best rate of illumination,
moreover 30% of full sun light is actually better.
 SPIRULINA

Photoperiod

• It improves photosynthetic efficiency

• Growth rate generally increase with increasing day

length and differences in growth rate.

• Higher frequencies may be associated with too much

turbulence and shear that cell damage may ensue.
 SPIRULINA

Light quality

• It also plays an essential role in photosynthesis and in

cell growth.
• In general, white light results in an intermediate
photosynthetic response whereas appreciable inter-
specific differences can be observed at either blue-
green or red wavelengths.
• Both blue and green lights led to an increase in
protein/carbohydrate ratios as compared to white
light.
 SPIRULINA
2.Temperature
• The most important climatic factor influencing the
rate of growth of Spirulina.
• Below 20°C, growth is practically nil, but Spirulina
does not die.
• The optimum temperature for growth is 35°C, but
above 38°C Spirulina is in danger.
• Respiration decreases the mass of Spirulina, its rate is
much greater at high temperature so cool nights are
better on that account, but in the morning beware that
Spirulina cannot stand a strong light on cold (below
15°C).
 SPIRULINA

3. pH
• pH regulates the uptake of essential nutrients such as
nitrate and phosphate to the culture.
• pH should be maintained around 10 to 11.
• Increase in pH leads to decrease in growth rate.
• pH increase when temperature raises.
• Decrease in pH contaminates the culture.
• Growth decreases when pH exceeds 12.
 SPIRULINA

4. Nutrients
• Nutrients & CO2 are the most crucial factors limiting
growth in microalgae.
• Fast growth of biomass production requires nitrogen,
phosphorus and carbon as they are essential
components for formation of proteins, enzymes,
lipids, genetic materials and other cellular
constituents.
• Iron, a key chemical component in photosynthesis,
low primary productivity is often associated with
iron-deficient culture despite the abundant supply of
other essential nutrients.
 SPIRULINA

4. Mixing, turbulence and shear:

• a well-mixed culture has minimal thermal and
gaseous stratification in the water column.
• It reduces photoinhibition in the upper layers of the
culture and minimal cell sedimentation.
• Improves exchange of air/water interface allowing for
culture carbonation and out gassing of O2.
• Allowing for better diffusion of nutrients and gas
exchange across cell membranes, and finally, they are
being constantly shifted between the dark and light
zones of the culture.
 SPIRULINA

4. Mixing, turbulence and shear:

• Well-mixed microalgal cultures has stable pH and
increase in growth.
• A more efficient exchange of nutrients increases
metabolites reduces dissolved oxygen level.
• High mixing rates and turbulence are associated with
high power consumption and can lead to cell death as
a result of physical cell damage.
• Cell damage promotes culture deterioration through
increased bacterial activity due to the higher organic
load originating from burst cells.
 SPIRULINA

5. Contamination
• Microalgal cultures are contaminated usually by
heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and
arsenic.
• Foreign microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria,
viruses, protozoa, predatory and zooplankton as well
as other unwanted algae can lead to unstable growth
conditions.
• Bacterial infection can also occur and their presence
in the culture usually increases turbidity, thus
reducing the amount of light available to the
microalgal cells.
 SPIRULINA
Contaminated Spirulina Culture – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA
Contaminated Spirulina Culture – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA
Contaminated Spirulina Culture – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA
Contaminated Spirulina Culture – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA
Contaminated Spirulina Culture – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA
Contaminated Spirulina Culture – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA

Technical & biological considerations of outdoor

microalgal cultivation

* Culture systems * Nutrient input

* Light, temperature & oxygen
* Respiration losses
* Efficient use of light
* Temperature control
* Harvesting regime
* pH and CO2
* Evaporation & salinity
* Contamination
* Mixing & turbulence
 SPIRULINA

Spirulina culture
troubleshooting
 SPIRULINA

Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

1. New Spirulina tank turns into yellow / brown

colour and clumps after a day or so?..
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina Culture – pale green in colour
 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Wrong water source used to develop medium.

2. Uneven tank base, leads to wrong water calculations
3. Wrong nutrient proportions.
4. Poor quality nutrients
5. Inoculated Spirulina strain might be less or poor in
quality and
6. Temperature too high or low.
 SPIRULINA

Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

2. Spirulina Culture stays or turns into pale green?..

 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Excess of water added to the culture.

2. Wrong nutrient proportions.
3. Poor quality nutrients
4. Light source too high or low.
5. Poor weather conditions and
6. Inoculated Spirulina strain may be less.
 SPIRULINA

Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

3. Spirulina culture growing fine, suddenly within a day

turns into yellowish and thin clumps appears on the
surface of the culture?..
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina Culture with clumps
 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. High light source or high temperature.

2. Very low culture level.
3. Poor quality of nutrients.
4. Wrong nutrient proportions.
5. Improper agitation.
6. Mixing of cultures from one tank to other.
7. Lack of growth due to bad weather and
8. Possibilities for other bacterial contaminations.
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

4. Culture slowly turns from its original colour to brown

or yellowish slowly day by day along with clumps
and does not grow?..
 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Increase in pH (above 12).

2. Increase in hydro (above 1020).
3. Decrease in culture level.
4. Wrong amount of make-up mix.
5. Lack of growth due to poor quality of fertilizers.
6. Lack of growth due to improper agitation.
7. Lack of growth due to bad weather.
8. Imbalance or old culture (more than 6 months) and
9. Possibilities for other bacterial contaminations.
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

5. Clumps appears in the culture, floating or stuck to

walls?..
 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Decrease in pH (above 12).

2. Decrease in hydro (above 1020).
3. Wrong amount of make-up mix.
4. Due to poor quality of fertilizers.
5. Due to improper agitation.
6. Very high temperature and
7. Due to bad weather.
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

6. Spirulina strands are short ( average less than 4 turns

when seen under microscope) ?..
 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Increase in pH (above 12).

2. Increase in hydro (above 1020).
3. Increase in culture level.
4. Due to poor quality of fertilizers.
5. Due to improper, hard or strong agitation.
6. Due to harvesting pump.
7. Due to bad weather and
8. Old culture (more than 6 months)
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

7. Harvested Spirulina seems to be sticky?..

 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Increase in pH (above 12).

2. Increase in hydro (above 1020).
3. Decrease in water level.
4. Due to poor quality of fertilizers.
5. Due to improper agitation.
6. Due to bad weather and
8. Old culture (more than 6 months)
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

8. During harvest Spirulina directly passes through the

filter cloth, doesn’t stagnate?..
 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Increase in pH (above 12).

2. Decrease of fertilizers in medium.
3. Due to poor quality of fertilizers.
4. Due to improper agitation.
5. Due to bad weather.
6. Old culture (more than 6 months) and
7. Possibilities for other bacterial contaminations.
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina medium troubleshooting…

9. Spirulina culture seems to be jelly or clumps found

on the surface of the medium?..
 SPIRULINA

Some known reasons:

1. Increase in pH (above 12).

2. Increase in hydro.
3. Decrease in medium level in tank.
4. Increase of fertilizers added to the medium.
5. Due to poor quality of fertilizers.
6. Due to improper agitation.
7. Due to bad weather and
8. Old culture (more than 6 months).
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina Culture with clumps and foam
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina Culture – Foam present on the surface
 SPIRULINA
Presence of carotenoids and phycocyanine
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina on harvesting table – Very less stagnation
 SPIRULINA
Excess of fertilizers found harvesting tray
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina with live rotifiers – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA
Spirulina with live rotifiers – Microscopic view
 SPIRULINA

Rotifier & Ephydra – (Microscopic view)

 SPIRULINA
Larva of ephydra on the walls of pond
 SPIRULINA
Ephydra on Spirulina culture
 SPIRULINA

Our Team
 SPIRULINA

THANK YOU…
Presentation by
S.GANESH B.E., M.B.A.,
for
SREE ANNAI SPIRULINA FARM
GUDIYATTAM, VELLORE DISTRICT.