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Spirulina Platensis (Arthrospira): Physiology, Cell-Biology and Biotechnology

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Spirulina Platensis (Arthrospira): Physiology, Cell-Biology and Biotechnology Spirulina platensis (Arthrospira) Spirulina platensis (Arthrospira) Physiology, cell-biology and biotechnology Edited by AVIGAD VONSHAK Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel UK Taylor & Francis Ltd, 1 Gunpowder Square, London EC4A 3DE USA Taylor & Francis Inc., 1900 Frost Road, Suite 101, Bristol, PA 19007 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Ltd 1997 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-7484-0674-3 (cased) Library of Congress Cataloging Publication Data are available Cover design by Youngs Design in Production ISBN 0-203-48396-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-79220-3 (Glassbook Format) To my family: my parents Chaia and Nachman; my wife Ahuva and boys Itai and Ohad for their trust, support and love Contents Preface ix Foreword xi Contributors xv 1 Morphology, Ultrastructure and Taxonomy of Arthrospira (Spirulina) maxima and Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis 1 Luisa Tomaselli 2 The Photosynthetic Apparatus of Spirulina: Electron Transport and Energy Transfer 17 Prasanna Mohanty, Madhulika Srivastava and Kolli Bala Krishna 3 Spirulina: Growth, Physiology and Biochemistry 43 Avigad Vonshak 4 Genetics of Spirulina 67 Ajay K.Vachhani and Avigad Vonshak 5 Outdoor Mass Production of Spirulina: The Basic Concept 79 Avigad Vonshak 6 Tubular Bioreactors 101 Giuseppe Torzillo 7 Cultivation of Spirulina (Arthrospira) platensis in Flat Plate Reactors 117 Mario R.Tredici and Graziella Chini Zittelli 8 Mass Culture of Spirulina Outdoors—The Earthrise Farms Experience 131 Amha Belay vii Contents 9 Mass Cultivation and Wastewater Treatment Using Spirulina 159 Gilles Laliberté, Eugenia J.Olguin and Joël de la Noüe 10 The Chemicals of Spirulina 175 Zvi Cohen 11 Use of Spirulina Biomass 205 Avigad Vonshak Appendices 213 Avigad Vonshak Index 227 viii Preface Spirulina, or what was most likely Arthrospira, was rediscovered in the mid-1960s. A report by a botanist, Jean Léonard, who was a member of a French-Belgian expedition to Africa, described a blue-green cake sold in the food market of Fort Lamy, Chad. A further study revealed that this cake, called in the local dialect dihé, contained a blue-green alga identified as Spirulina and was consumed by the Kanembu tribe living along the alkaline lakes of Chad and Niger. Earlier reports in 1940 on the use of dihé had passed without any further notice. At about the same time that Leonard had discovered Spirulina in Africa, a request was received from a company named Sosa Texcoco, by the Institut Français du Pétrole to study a bloom of algae occurring in the evaporation ponds of their sodium bicarbonate production facility in a lake near Mexico city. As a result, the first systematic and detailed study of the growth requirements and physiology of Spirulina was performed. This study, which was part of a Ph.D. thesis by Zarrouk, was the basis for establishing the first large-scale production plant of Spirulina. Nevertheless, most of the work never reached the attention of the international scientific community. If I may make personal comment, it is my impression that this was because the thesis was published in French and was never translated into English. In a way, establishing the production site of Spirulina in Mexico was a kind of closing of a circuit. Some four hundred years before Sosa Texcoco had started the commercial production of Spirulina, in the sixteenth century, when the Spanish invaders conquered Mexico, they discovered that the Aztecs living in the Valley of Mexico in the capital Tenochtitlan were collecting a ‘new food’ from the lake. This food, described as a blue-green cake and called by the locals tecuitlatl, was used in a similar way to that for dihé of the Kanembu. Although no clear evidence is available on the exact composition of this food, it is clear that it contained a blue-green alga, and up to the present day Spirulina maxima is the dominant species in those waters. So, from a semi-natural production facility in the early 1970s with a big variation in annual production from 100 to 400 tonnes, 25 years later Spirulina reached a total annual production exceeding 1000 tonnes per year with a forecast of doubling its market by the end of this century. ix Preface Developments in the field of algal biotechnology have yielded a few excellent contributions dealing with different aspects of the technology and some related problems in the mass cultivation of Spirulina. In the last ten years, a number of booklets have been published on Spirulina, most of them containing interesting information but mainly aimed at consumers, either written in a somewhat personal manner or containing practical information on the outdoor culturing of Spirulina. There is no doubt that in order to support an industry producing 2000 tonnes of Spirulina biomass, with annual sales estimated at 40 million US$, much more has to be done, not only in the optimization of the production, but in more basic research in understanding the basics of the physiology, biochemistry and genetics of this alga. This volume consists of two parts: the first deals with basic information on morphology, physiology, photosynthesis and genetics of laboratory cultures; the second part is dedicated to practical aspects of the biotechnology. It is the first time that a commercial production facility has revealed so many details on its production facility (Chapter 8). I can only hope that this will set an example to other producers to realize that at this stage of the game we do have to share information for the benefit of all interested in further development of this industry. All the current mass producers of Spirulina are using open raceway ponds. It is my belief that with the increased demand for a high-quality product and a more sustainable and reliable production system, the future of mass production of Spirulina, as well as other algae, is in the development of closed systems. Which is the best one is still under investigation, and much more effort is required to further develop the optimal closed photobioreactor. This is the reason why two chapters (6 and 7) are devoted to this aspect. Both chapters were written by scientists from the Centra di Studio dei Microrganismi Autotrofi del CNR, Florence, Italy, which was headed by the late Prof. Florenzano, who was succeeded by Prof. Materrasi, pioneering the research in closed systems for outdoor cultivation of Spirulina. This volume, which is a joint effort of many people involved in Spirulina research, is an attempt to collect the basic and the most relevant information on Spirulina. Some of it will be outdated by the time the book reaches the market, but we all hope that it will serve as a reference book and a starting point to further studies leading to a better understanding of algal biotechnology in general and mass production of Spirulina in particular. For this, I would like to give special thanks to all the contributors for their excellent work. Last, I would like to thank two persons: Prof. Amos Richmond, a teacher and a friend, with whom I made my first steps some twenty years ago in algal biotechnology, and since then a source of inspiration and encouragement in all my studies. The second is Prof. Carl J.Soeder from Germany, with whose group I was first introduced to algal biotechnology. His pioneering work on outdoor production of Scenedesmus and Chlorella has benefitted many of us. Bringing a collaborative volume to the printing stage is not only a job of writing and editing; it involves lots of administration, coordination and dedicated work. All of this and more has been contributed by Ms Ilana Saller, to whom I owe special thanks. Avigad Vonshak Sede-Boker, September 1996 x Foreword About one-third of world plant biomass consists of algae. The number of microalgae species is estimated at between 22 000 and 26 000, the biochemistry and ecophysiology of about fifty of which have been studied in detail. Microalgae represent all photosynthetic prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms, and most of them live in aquatic environments. Having used dense suspensions of the green unicellular alga, Chlorella, in experiments to study photosynthesis and having recognized that some microalgae could increase their biomass many times per day and that their dry matter could contain more than 50 per cent crude protein, tests were made in the early 1940s to grow microalgae on a large scale in Germany. Techniques for continuous cultivation were developed and attempts made to grow algae for potential commercial applications. In the early 1950s, researchers from the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC, made outstanding contributions in this area, showing that the fat and protein contents of Chlorella cells could be modified by varying environmental conditions. Several pilot algal cultivation units were run at the Carnegie Institution. In 1957, Tamiya and his co-workers of the Tokugawa Institute of Biology, Tokyo, published their results on the outdoor mass cultivation of Chlorella, as part of an international project on algal culture also supported by the Carnegie Institution. In fact, Japan was the first country to produce and sell Chlorella biomass as a health food or as a water-soluble extract called ‘Chlorella growth factor’. In 1953, the German researchers of the Kohlenstoffbiologische Forschungstation e.b. (Essen, Germany) investigated the possibility of using the waste carbon dioxide produced by industrial plants of the Ruhr area to grow Chlorella sp.
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