EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT FOR SPIRULINA PRODUCTION USING LOW ENTHALPY GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES
Data
Acronym: SPITERM
Socios: Instituto Tecnológico y de Energías Renovables S.A. , Agencia Insular de Energía de Tenerife (AIET) y el Banco Español de Algas-FCPCT-ULPGC.
Duration: 2016-2019 (4 years)
Presupuesto: 1,724,520.01€
Financing: Call for proposals Challenges-Collaboration. State Programme for Research, Development and Innovation Oriented towards the Challenges of Society. State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016. Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
Overview of the project
The SPITERM project proposes to take advantage of the characteristics of the low-enthalpy geothermal waters of the galleries on the island of Tenerife to reduce the costs of commercial production of the microalgae Spirulina (the trade name given to some species of the genus Arthrospira), for which market demand is growing all the time.
The general objective of the project is to determine the sustainable inter-annual production of Spirulina microalgae on a pilot plant scale, taking advantage of mineral salts, gases (CO2) and the temperature of geothermal water to reduce the cost of culture media and boost production in photobioreactors compared to conventional systems. This will reduce the technological costs of production by approximately 25% and obtain a biomass of high commercial value due to its protein, phycobiliprotein, polyunsaturated fatty acids and antioxidant substances content.
The Canary Islands is the most competitive European region for Spirulina cultivation, as it has high annual irradiation and temperature rates, as well as unpolluted salty or brackish water. In this case, it is a question of using an available and manageable natural resource, a clean and renewable energy.
Objectives:
The general objective of the project is to take advantage of the characteristics of the low enthalpy geothermal waters of the galleries on the island of Tenerife to reduce the costs of commercial production of the microalgae Spirulina.
In order to achieve this objective, the following specific objectives are proposed:
- Use geothermal energy and naturally occurring CO2 to optimise the photosynthetic process for the growth of Spirulina algae.
- Design and manufacture of a photobioreactor-type cultivation system with high volumetric productivity and efficient light energy conversion.
- Monitoring of the physico-chemical parameters of the water in the selected gallery throughout the duration of the project to determine the concentrations of salts to be added.
- Formulation of the culture medium based on the classic recipe of the Spirulina-modified medium used in the Spanish Algae Bank. (www.marinebiotechnlogy.org).
- Selection of the Spirulina strain best suited to the processing medium, cultivation conditions (natural irradiation and geothermal water temperature) and cultivation system.
- Training of technical staff to carry out plant maintenance, Spirulina production and biomass processing.
- Testing of other raceway and thin-layer cultivation systems to compare the efficiency of the designed system.
- To evaluate the full potential of this idea for the island of Tenerife as a possible new economic activity for the island.
Project website: http://www.spiterm.com/
Links of interest:
