Bioprocess intensification: an aqueous two-phase process for the purification of C-phycocyanin from dry Spirulina platensis

Abstract

The dry Spirulina powders are rich in nutritional compounds especially including C-phycocyanin (C-PC) have been principal raw material in the food processing. But the purity of C-PC in the dry powders was not up to the food grade standard. In this study, C-PC was recovered and purified from the dry algae powders using aqueous two-phase system (ATPS). The optimal conditions were proved in polyethylene glycol (PEG) 1000 and sodium phosphate, system pH of 5.8, the tie-line length of 28.50 % (w/w) and the volume ratio (Vr) of 0.16 to increase the purity from the initial purity of 0.42 to 1.31 after the first extraction. The recovery yield was 89.52 %. After the third ATPS extraction, the purity and the purification factor were achieving up 2.11 and 5.01. It was successfully decreased the viscosity of the system and extraction time by application of PEG 1000. It facilitated the feasibility of the scaling-up in industry.