Abstract
The kinetics of growing microalga, Spirulina platensis was investigated to treat swine wastes with optimum growth conditions. Temperature was varied from 15 to 40$\circ$C at three different light intensities, 6 W/m$^{2}$, 12 W/m$^{2}$ and 24 W/m$^{2}$. The specific growth rate was increased as temperature increased up to 30$\circ$C. The activation energy was estimated as 13.5 kcal/mol by an Arrhenius relationship. 0.24 (1/day) of specific growth rate was obtained from batch cultivation with 30% swine wastes, compared to 0.31 (1/day) from clean culture. It was found that Spirulina platensis was able to reduce 70-93% of PO$_{4}$$^{3-}$ -P, 67-93% of inorganic nitrogen, 80-90% of COD and 37-56% organic nitrogen by adding various concentrations of swine wastes for 12 days of batch cultivation. Rate constants for removing nitrates and phosphates in treating swine wastes were estimated as 0.17 (1/day) and 0.14 (1/day) in the first order reaction, respectively. 1.52 (g/L) of maximum cell density was maintained at 0.20 (1/day) of dilution rate in continuous culture, adding 20% swine wastes for 30 days. The chemical composition of the biomass obtained from the process showed 58.7% of protein, 11.0% of lipid and 15.6% of ash.