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

Shir Reen Chia; Kit Wayne Chew; Hayyiratul Fatimah Mohd Zaid; Dinh-Toi Chu; Yang Tao; Pau Loke Show

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2019.00396

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

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2019 Dec 6:7:396. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2019.00396. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Shir Reen Chia¹, Kit Wayne Chew², Hayyiratul Fatimah Mohd Zaid³, Dinh-Toi Chu⁴, Yang Tao⁵, Pau Loke Show¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Malaysia.
² Faculty of Science and Engineering, School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Malaysia.
³ Fundamental and Applied Sciences Department, Centre of Innovative Nanostructures & Nanodevices (COINN), Institute of Autonomous System, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia.
⁴ Faculty of Biology, Hanoi National University of Education, Hanoi, Vietnam.
⁵ College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.

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.

Keywords: bio-separation; microalgae; protein extraction; triphasic partitioning technique; ultrasonic.