Arthrospira platensis harvesting with membranes: Fouling phenomenon with limiting and critical flux

The present work deals with the harvesting of Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) from a diluted culture medium. This cyanobacterium was retained by the European Space Agency as food supply for long term manned spatial missions, and integrated in the MELiSSA project: an artificial microecosystem which supports life in space. Membranes techniques seem to be adapted to efficiency, reliability and safety constraints, even if a well-known limitation is the progressive fouling and permeation flux decrease. Among usual solid/liquid separation processes, Arthrospira harvesting is performed by tangential ultrafiltration (tubular inorganic membrane 50 kD Céram-Inside from Tami, Nyons, France). To ensure a reliable separation step with the best biomass quality, a good comprehension of the ultrafiltration progress and fouling phenomenon is needed, in particular, the link between operating parameters, permeation flux and cleanability. Comparative experiments were made between limiting and critical flux with different suspensions: fresh biomass, stressed biomass and a suspension of Arthrospira platensis enriched with exopolysaccharides.