(62au) Quantitative Evaluation of Mechanical Algal Cell Rupturing Techniques and Their Effectiveness in the Extraction of Value Added Products

Algae are major sources for high value added products with applications in the energy, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. The primary difficulty with the use of algae for the production of added value products is the harvesting step. Algae have a rigid cell wall composed of cellulose, glycoproteins and additional polysaccharides. It is this composition that makes extraction of the added value products difficult. To evaluate various extraction techniques we developed a model using the green alga Chlorella protothecoides. This organism is known to produce high quantities of oil when grown in nitrogen deprived environment. Oil is an ideal added value product to study the extraction of as it can be readily quantified in the cell and after extraction. In this study we used this model to compare drying and grinding with a Cell Disruptor. The extent of cell breakage was measured by comparing pictures of the cultures before and after processing. The amount of value added product recovered following separation, solvent extraction and centrifugation was also used as a measure of the extent of cell breakage and efficiency of the processes. We concluded that the Cell Disruptor was more efficient than drying and grinding.