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Investigation of some methods for increasing the digestibility in vitro of microalgae
Author(s) -
Hedenskog Gudmund,
Enebo Lennart,
Vendlová Jitka,
Prokeš Bohumír
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.260110104
Subject(s) - hydrogen peroxide , pepsin , slurry , chemistry , ball mill , algae , chromatography , cell disruption , incubation , enzyme , pulp and paper industry , materials science , botany , biochemistry , biology , composite material , engineering
In order to increase the availability of the cell bound protein in Scenedesmus algae, mechanical, enzymatic, and chemical methods of degrading the cell wall structure were investigated. Mechanical treatment involved the use of a ball‐mill. The algae suspension together with glass beads was milled in a water‐cooled chamber equipped with rotating disks. The enzyme tested was a cellulolytic enzyme (Meicelase) and the chemical employed was hydrogen peroxide. In the ball‐mill experiments a complete disintegration was achieved ina disintegrator, working with batches. Trails wwere also performed with a continuous disintegrator and the depedence of disintegration on bead size and flow rate was studied. The disintegration determined by microscropic cell count was compared to the increase of the pepsin digestibility. The meicelase treatment caused a slight increase of the pepsin digestibility, as measured after 3 hr pepsin incubation. No increase of the pepsin disgestibility could be detected with hydrogen peroxide treatment. After the ball‐mill disintegration 95% of contaminating bacteria were killed and yields of extractable proteins were higher. The capacity of availble continuous ball‐mills is such that they could be used on a pilot‐plant scale and the energy cost of disintegration would be of the same magnitude as that of separation.