Open AccessPressurized extraction of unsaturated fatty acids and carotenoids from wet Chlorella vulgaris and Phaeodactylum tricornutum biomass using subcritical liquids
Author(s) -
Derwenskus Felix,
Metz Felix,
Gille Andrea,
SchmidStaiger Ulrike,
Briviba Karlis,
Schließmann Ursula,
Hirth Thomas
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
gcb bioenergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.378
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1757-1707
pISSN - 1757-1693
DOI - 10.1111/gcbb.12563
Subject(s) - phaeodactylum tricornutum , chlorella vulgaris , polyunsaturated fatty acid , carotenoid , food science , extraction (chemistry) , fatty acid , eicosapentaenoic acid , chemistry , biomass (ecology) , botany , biology , biochemistry , chromatography , algae , agronomy
The objective of this study was to investigate the extraction of lipids, for example, mono‐ and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) as well as carotenoids, from wet microalgae biomass using pressurized subcritical extraction solvents, which meet the requirements of food and feed applications. To demonstrate the effect of the solvent and temperature on the lipid yield, we chose two microalgae species, viz. Chlorella vulgaris and Phaeodactylum tricornutum , differing in their biochemical composition fundamentally. In case of P. tricornutum, ethanol showed the highest fatty acid yield of 85.9% w/w. In addition to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), the ethanolic extracts contained exceptional amounts of fucoxanthin (up to 26.1 mg/g d. w.), which can be beneficial to protect unsaturated fatty acids from oxidation processes and in terms of human nutrition. For C. vulgaris , a fatty acid yield of 76.5% w/w was achieved from wet biomass using ethyl acetate at 150°C. In general, an increase in the extraction temperature up to 150°C was found to be important in terms of fatty acid yield when extracting wet microalgae biomass. The results suggest that it is possible to efficiently extract both fatty acids and carotenoids from wet microalgae by selecting suitable solvents and thus circumvent energy‐intensive drying of the biomass.