Effective solvents for proteins recovery from microalgae

Pau Loke Show*, Kit Wayne Chew*, Kuan Shiong Khoo*, Atthasit Tawai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

From an industrial perspective, the exploitation of microalgae as protein source is of great economical and commercial interest due to several attractive characteristics. However, the protein extraction efficiency is limited by the multiple layers of rigid and thick cell walls that are enriched with recalcitrant structure of cellulose. Therefore, an efficient method of cell disruption is necessary to disintegrate the cell wall and promote the release of protein contents. The conventional methods for downstream processing, e.g. disruption, isolation, extraction, concentration and purification, are energy-intensive and costly because they typically compose of several operational units. To reduce the overall process cost and establish an economical feasible process for the large-scale production of microalgae derived products, a more cost-effective and ecofriendly technique in downstream processing is in critical demand. One of the main challenges for protein extraction from microalgae cells is the recalcitrant structure of microalgae cell wall. This work aims to provide a guideline on the selection of the solvent to facilitate the proteins release during the cell disruption process. The influences of various solvent types (methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol and water) were evaluated and compared based on the protein yields. It was found that water solvent released the highest protein concentration from microalgae compared to the other tested solvents.

Original languageEnglish
Article number02009
JournalE3S Web of Conferences
Volume355
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 12 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event2022 Research, Invention, and Innovation Congress, RI�C 2022 - Virtual, Online, Thailand
Duration: Aug 4 2022Aug 5 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Authors.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Environmental Science
  • General Energy
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Keywords

  • Liquid biphasic system technologies
  • Microalgae
  • Protein
  • Solvents

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