Abstract
Microalgae are a promising source for proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates for the food/feed and biofuel industry. To make microalgae production economically feasible, it is necessary to optimally use all produced compounds keeping full functionality. Therefore, biorefining of microalgae is the key to lower the cost of algal products using mild and effective processing techniques. In this article, we have tested the feasibility of aqueous solutions of imidazolium and phosponium ionic liquids to selectively milk the hydrophobic lipids from Neochloris oleoabundans biomass out of intact cells and recover after cell disruption the hydrophilic fraction containing proteins and carbohydrates. The results showed that the ionic liquid tributylmethylphosphonium methylsulfate (TBP SO4; Cyphos 108) is able to permeabilize fresh intact cells of N. oleoabundans for extracting 68% of total lipids out of the cells, whereas, after cell disruption, 80% of total proteins, and 77% of total carbohydrates could be obtained in aqueous buffers. This concept kept the recovered proteins in their native form without interacting with the ionic liquids that will denature the proteins. Selective biorefinery of different components from microalgae using ionic liquid TBP SO4 explains the novelty of this concept.
Highlights
Microalgae are promising feedstocks for biofuel production
Preliminary screening of two Ionic Liquid (IL) classes, imidazolium, and phosphonium-based ILs, on lipid extraction from intact freeze-dried N. oleoabundans shows in Table 2 the highest lipid extraction efficiency for TBP Tributylmethylphosphonium methylsulfate (SO4) and BMIM 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium dibutylphosphate (DBP)
Further pre-treatment studies of freeze-dried N. oleoabundans with imidazolium (BMIM DBP)-based IL showed better lipid extraction efficiency compared to phosphonium (TBP SO4)based ILs at concentrations of 40 and 80% w/w and at a temperature of 45◦C
Summary
Microalgae are promising feedstocks for biofuel production. These photosynthetic microorganisms have high lipid productivity and do not compete for arable land when compared to terrestrial oleaginous crops (Wijffels and Barbosa, 2010). Microalgae have a very tough cell wall and require energy-intensive unit operations to break open the cell and release the intracellular content. Apart from lipids, microalgae are good sources of proteins, carbohydrates, and pigments. Utilization of these value-added co-products for food, cosmetics, health, and chemicals would help in making the process economically feasible (Vanthoor-Koopmans et al, 2012)
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