Growth kinetics of microalgae Spirulina sp. using vinasse media

¹ Master in System Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
² Center of Excellent for Microalgae Biorefinery, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
³ Faculty of Biology, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, 55284, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: abudiman@ugm.ac.id

Abstract

Spirulina sp. is a type of microalgae that can accumulate functional metabolites in their biomass for use in various industries. However, due to the high production costs and low biomass content, there are still challenges in creating microalgae-based products. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize various nutrients in microalgae cultivation media to obtain biomass with high productivity. This research explores the use of vinasse as a cost-effective and highly nutritious cultivation medium obtained from vinasse to reduce harvest costs and develop the potential of a microalgae biorefinery that utilizes vinasse as a culture medium for Spirulina sp. strains. The aim of this research is to determine the ideal vinasse nutrition that can increase the number of Spirulina sp. cells, as well as considering the growth parameters of Spirulina sp. with the Gompertz and Richard Model. The parameter measured in this study was Optical Density (OD) which was measured every day during the 7 days observation period. The vinasse concentration used in this research was 4%. The results of this study indicate that the ideal amount of supplement for the growth of Spirulina sp. is a 0.04% supplement and the amount of biomass produced is 0.37 g/L.