Increasing cyanobacteria Spirulina production with mixing and chemical composition of culture medium

In this research, the effects of aeration and agitation of culture vessel on Spirulina biomass production were studied in five various culture media. Spirulina was cultivated in Zarrouk, Jourdan, F2, Schlosser, and seawater salt culture media. In the cultivation system with aeration, mixing was performed with air flow of 0.2 vvm, and in cultivation system with agitation of culture vessel, shaking was performed continiously at 150 rpm using a shaker. Spirulina was grown in all cultures, reached to highest cell concentrations of 4.0 g L-1 by agitation system and 3.68 g L-1 by aeration system. In agitation, highest level of biomass production obtained in Zarrouk culture medium equal to 4.0 g L-1 wheares lowest level was obtained in seawater salt culture medium equal to 2.49 g L-1. In aeration, the highest level of biomass production of 3.69 g L-1 was obtained in seawater salt culture medium wheares lowest of 2.3 g L-1 was obtained in F2 culture medium. The pH increased continuously up to 10.9 during cultivation in agitation system, but in the aeration system, the pH increase up to the 7th cultivation day and then stopped at 10.1. In the seawater salt culture medium, biomass production in the aeration system was higher than in the agitation of culture vessel. The finding of this study indicate that stress has high effects on Spirulina growth and biomass production, and by reducing the stress, the yield of Spirulina production can be increased for commercial purposes.