Pulsed Electric Field for protein release of the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Neochloris oleoabundans

Highlights

• PEF for microalgal disintegration results in a maximum release of 13% protein.

• Energy increase did not result in higher protein release.

• PEF is not competitive with mechanical disintegration in terms of protein release.

Abstract

Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) is currently discussed as promising technology for mild and scalable cell disintegration of microalgae. In this study Chlorella vulgaris and Neochloris oleoabundans have been subjected to batch and continuous PEF treatments under a wide range of operating conditions (1–40 pulses, 0.05–5 ms pulses, 7.5–30 kV cm^− 1, 0.05–150 kWh kg_DW^− 1). In many cases after treatment, both algal species show release of ions, which indicates that PEF treatment resulted in permeabilization of the algal cell. However, the electroporation effect was not sufficient to substantially release intracellular proteins. Even at severe energy input (10 to 100 times higher than bead milling) only up to 13% of proteins released from the cells in comparison to 45–50% after bead milling.