Efecto de fertilizantes comerciales sobre la producción de biomasa de Scenedesmus obliquus ATCC 11457 a escala piloto

Abstract

The study of microalgae has shown a wide applicability in varied fields as medicine, cosmetology CO2, capture among others. Despite this, the expenses are significant when it comes to producing microalgal biomass at large scale, especially for the cost of the culture medium, which is significantly high, reaching 40 % of the production cost; due to this, ways are being sought to save production processes. For the above, the present study evaluated the effect of two commercial NPK fertilizers have on the cell growth of Scenedesmus obliquus

ATCC 11457, in order to propose a culture medium that can be a viable nutrient source and reduce costs of the media. For this, pilot-scale tests were carried out in 20 L photobioreactors, using commercial fertilizers as the culture medium. Crecilizer® and Florilizer® fertilizers were determined to be viable nutrient sources for S. obliquus. The Florilizer® fertilizer presented higher cellular productivity, compared to the traditional medium, 31 % more proteins and a reduction in production cost in culture medium up to 66 %, so this fertilizer is recommended for the production of biomass with high protein content and low cost.