Integration of Pulsed Electric Fields in the Biorefinery Concept to Extract Microalgae Components of Interest for Food Industry

The high cultivation costs for microalgae and the complex and costly downstream processing make the price per ton of raw materials from microalgae biomass, such as biofuel, uneconomic. To overcome this detriment, it is suggested to use the residual biomass for biofuel production after obtaining high- and middle-value products. Microalgae are an attractive food source, since they are rich in proteins, peptides, carbohydrates, lipids, and other essential nutrients with protective and detoxifying roles (vitamins, minerals, pigments). A major problem is that these valuable components cannot be accessed without prior and adequate cell disruption. This chapter discusses a new strategy to integrate PEF treatment into biorefinery concept by implementation of an incubation step which facilitates the release of intracellular components after PEF treatment. Based on the results obtained from the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and the cyanobacteria Arthrospira platensis, the dependence of various influencing factors such as temperature, pH value, and biomass concentration on protein release during the incubation step is shown. Finally, the efficiency of this approach is discussed.