1. Maintenance of pure strains
It is a permanent work of maintenance of the biological material that has been selected from the natural environment in which spirulina proliferates. The biological material is maintained under conditions of isolation and controlled laboratory conditions. In no case is genetic manipulation of the microorganisms. Only the natural conditions are reproduced, optimizing the purity of the liquid environment in which they live (culture medium), consequently they achieve better reproduction rates.
2. Laboratory cultures
It is a permanent work in which the selected biological material is reproduced. For this, controlled laboratory cultivation conditions are used in terms of luminosity, temperature and air injection as a means to homogenize the cultures in small volumes (from 50 ml to 20 lt).
3. Production of inocula
It is a semi-continuous, cultured Spirulina operation in ponds (culture reactors) covered under plastic or greenhouse. In this stage the material that comes from the laboratory is reproduced and consists of two stages, whose volumes range from 250 lt to 60 m3.
4. Cultivation in production reactors
It is the operation of intensive cultivation in large ponds or crop reactors in which reproduce the environmental conditions in which Spirulina naturally grows. Optimizing the productivity through a system of agitation by paddle wheels, which generate a stream flow similar to a river, which allows to capture more efficiently the solar energy.
5. Harvesting
It is a unitary operation in which Spirulina is separated from its aqueous culture medium, which is recycled back to the culture reactors. As a result of this operation a pre-concentrate of Spirulina is obtained which is passed to the next operation.
6. Washing and concentration
In this stage two operations are carried out with the help of a vacuum filter. First the concentration of the biomass obtained in the harvesting operation is carried out and immediately the washing of this biomass to remove salts of the culture medium that could be adsorbed in the biomass of Spirulina.
7. Homogenization of biomass
This unitary operation consists exclusively in the conditioning of the biomass concentrated in the previous stage, to enable its drying. The operation is carried out by an artisan machine that liquefies the paste and leaves it fit to move to the next stage, in only 4 minutes of batch operation.
8. Drying
The biomass is liquefied and then dried by a spray-dried. It consists in causing a rain of microparticles of the product to dry, contact with hot air, resulting in instant evaporation, which allows to obtain a dry product in a matter of 2 to 3 seconds, since the contact with the hot air In the drying chamber. Spray drier is a machine of the same type as that used for powdered milk, egg powder, soluble coffee and other powdered foods which require drying at high temperature for a very short time, in general the product is pasteurized In this operation.
9. Packaging
It is an operation that has two phases. First is the reception of the product coming out of the dryer (spray-drier). The second is to weigh the box with 25 kg and seal it and then store it in the corresponding warehouse. During this operation samples are taken to send to do analysis in independent laboratory.
10. Tabletting and Encapsulation
These are optional operations that are done to make the marketing and consumption of the product easier, and give it an added value. Tabletting is a traditional operation used in pharmacology as is the encapsulation. These operations are performed without using excipients or additives of any nature.