Project

e-Newtrients: biostimulant extracts from spirulina

Extract biostimulant compounds from spirulina to use them in crops and promote plant growth without the use of chemical fertilizers.

IMG_1663-scaled-1

Objective.  Reuse spirulina byproducts from food dyes

The e-Newtrients project “Recycling Nutrients for future food” seeks the reuse of spirulina byproducts generated during the production process of food dyes.
For the reuse of these byproducts, an extraction design is proposed from the organic waste generated in the spirulina production process, in order to obtain biostimulants. The main objective is to extract biostimulants to use in crops and promote their growth without the use of chemical fertilizers.
This Project has received public funding under the VIDA call (Value added innovation in food chains), which has been financed by Horizon 2020 European Union under Grant Agreement No. 777795. The participating partners are CEW Center of Expertise Water Technologie, Algaria , Sunspring and ATRIA.
ATRA’s role in the e-Newtrients project has been the extraction and characterization of spirulina.

Solution. Extraction, optimization and characterization of spirulina as a biostimulant

First, we characterized the initial spirulina and the byproduct of the process to determine the organic compounds of interest that can be extracted. Furthermore, we characterized both matrices to assess their use in other sectors.

A partir de los resultados obtenidos en la caracterización, seleccionamos el método de extracción más adecuado y definimos las condiciones de los ensayos para conseguir aislar los compuestos orgánicos detectados. Para ello, variamos parámetros como la temperatura, la presión, relación residuo/disolvente, entre otros.
En paralelo caracterizamos los extractos obtenidos para determinar el rendimiento del proceso y definir las condiciones óptimas de proceso.
Una vez definidas las condiciones óptimas del proceso, llevamos a cabo las extracciones finales en laboratorio para producir los extractos destinados a la aplicación sobre plantas de pimiento piloto.

Based on the results obtained in the characterization, we selected the most appropriate extraction method and defined the test conditions to isolate the organic compounds detected. To do this, we varied parameters such as temperature, pressure, residue/solvent ratio, among others.
In parallel, we characterized the extracts obtained to determine the performance of the process and define the optimal process conditions.
Once the optimal conditions of the process were defined, we carried out the final extractions in the laboratory to produce the extracts intended for application on pilot pepper plants.

IMG_1573

The next step to study the biostimulant potential of spirulina extracts was to apply different amounts of the extracts to a large number of pepper plants. The objective of these tests was to define the appropriate extract concentration to enhance plant growth. At this point, we characterized the initial state of the plant (before applying the extract) and the state after 1 month of application using parameters such as plant height, stem width, number of leaves and flowers, root mass. or the leaf mass.

Finally, we compared the results obtained with the characterization of plants that had not been treated with the extracts. In this way we were able to quantify the improvement and define the optimal extract concentration to use in the plants.