Combined bead milling and enzymatic hydrolysis for efficient fractionation of lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae

Razieh Shafiei Alavijeh; Keikhosro Karimi; Rene H Wijffels; Corjan van den Berg; Michel Eppink

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123321

Combined bead milling and enzymatic hydrolysis for efficient fractionation of lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae

Bioresour Technol. 2020 Aug:309:123321. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123321. Epub 2020 Apr 6.

Authors

Razieh Shafiei Alavijeh¹, Keikhosro Karimi², Rene H Wijffels³, Corjan van den Berg⁴, Michel Eppink⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran; Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran; Industrial Biotechnology Group, Research Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran.
³ Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; Faculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture, Nord University, Kongens gate 42, 8049 Bodø, Norway.
⁴ Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands.
⁵ Bioprocess Engineering, Wageningen University, PO Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: michel.eppink@wur.nl.

PMID: 32305840
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123321

Abstract

A combined bead milling and enzymatic hydrolysis process was developed for fractionation of the major valuable biomass components, i.e., proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids from the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris. The cells were treated by bead milling followed by hydrolysis with different hydrolytic enzymes, including lipase, phospholipase, protease, and cellulase. Without enzymatic hydrolysis, the recovery yield of lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins for bead milled biomass was 75%, 31%, and 40%, respectively, while by applying enzymatic treatments these results were improved significantly. The maximum recovery yield for all components was obtained after enzymatic hydrolysis of bead milled biomass by lipase at 37 °C and pH 7.4 for 24 h, yielding 88% lipids in the solid phase while 74% carbohydrate and 68% protein were separated in the liquid phase. The recovery yield of components after enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass without bead milling was 44% lower than that of the milled biomass.

Keywords: Bead milling; Combined treatment; Enzymatic hydrolysis; Fractionation; Microalgae.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Carbohydrates
Chlorella vulgaris*
Hydrolysis
Lipids
Microalgae*

Substances

Carbohydrates
Lipids