Microalgal Protein Extraction From Chlorella vulgaris FSP-E Using Triphasic Partitioning Technique With Sonication

Abstract

Green microalgae containing various bioactive compounds and macronutrients such as lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins, have attracted much attention from the global community. Microalgae has the potential to be applied in food industries due to its high protein content, rapid growth rate, and ability to survive in harsh conditions. This study presents a simple yet efficient technique of sonication-assisted triphasic partitioning process, also known as ultrasonic-assisted three phase partitioning (UATPP), for the extraction of proteins from Chlorella vulgaris FSP-E. Comparison studies between three phase partitioning (TPP) and UATPP was conducted to investigate the feasibility of the enhanced technique on proteins extraction. Types of salt, ratio of slurry to t-butanol, salt saturation, sonication frequency, power, irradiation time, and duty cycle as well as biomass loading were studied. UATPP was found to be an improved technique compared to TPP. An optimum separation efficiency and yield of 74.59 ± 0.45 and 56.57 ± 3.70% was obtained, respectively, with the optimized conditions: salt saturation (50%), slurry to t-butanol ratio (1:2), sonication power (100%), irradiation time (10 min), frequency (35 kHz), duty cycle (80%) and biomass loading (0.75 wt%). A scaled-up study was performed to validate the reliability of UATPP for protein extraction. The outcome of the study revealed that UATPP is an attractive approach for downstream processing of microalgae.

Microalgae: A Promising Source of Valuable Bioproducts

“…Waghmare et al [ 54 ] studied the effect of various parameters on the three-phase separation method to optimize the process of protein isolation from Chlorella pyrenoidosa . Also, Chia et al [ 55 ] presented the extraction of protein from the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris by the method of three-phase separation with ultrasonic treatment. As a result of using additional ultrasonic processing, the authors were able to obtain an increased protein yield in a shorter period of time.…”

Primitive techno-economic study of bio-diesel and bio-active compound production from microalgae

“…Microalgae species have a high content of protein; therefore, they are considered as an untraditional protein source. The algal cells can be providing humans and animals with the essential amino acids due to their ability to synthesize all types of amino acids (Chia et al 2019).…”

Isolation of Industrial Important Bioactive Compounds from Microalgae

“…For efficient protein recovery (76%) from Chlorella sp., Ursu et al [ 87 ] suggested an alkaline treatment followed by isoelectric precipitation. Meanwhile, Chia et al [ 88 ] proposed an effective approach using ultrasound-assisted three phase partitioning method for efficient protein extraction and an optimised conditions for high protein recovery which is applicable for the future integrated bio-separation technique for biomolecules extraction from microalgae as well as to improve the current downstream bioprocessing techniques.…”