ULTIVATION OF ARTHROSPIRA PLATENSIS (SPIRULINA) IN A PHOTOBIOREACTOR FOR APPLICATION IN THE COSMETIC INDUSTRY
Arthrospira platensis, Photobioreactor, Low cost, LED, Cosmetics.
The production of Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) for the cosmetic and food industry has been gaining momentum due to the high concentration of antioxidant components such as phycocyanin’s, proteins and other compounds that allow its use in both markets. Due to the high value for the production of these microalgae, photobioreactors used in the cultivation of this microalgae have been the focus of improvement for this technique, especially in the elaboration of lower cost equipment. Comparative performance tests between lighting conditions with white and red LED 5050 strips allowed evaluating the production of microalgae for the cosmeceutical and food industries. With the use of characterization techniques such as FTIR and physicalchemical analysis such as proximate analysis, peroxide index, acidity, pH and refraction, in addition to the use of statistical tools, it was possible to correlate the cost with the economic benefit of associating this technique. Through the analyzes carried out and the evaluation of the yield of batches of different types of lighting and the centesimal analysis of the produced microalgae, it was possible to obtain comparative results for red LED to white LED demonstrating that the photobioreactor showed good productive capacity for the activity.