Extraction of natural astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis using liquid biphasic flotation system

Kuan Shiong Khoo; Kit Wayne Chew; Chien Wei Ooi; Hwai Chyuan Ong; Tau Chuan Ling; Pau Loke Show

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2019.121794

Extraction of natural astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis using liquid biphasic flotation system

Bioresour Technol. 2019 Oct:290:121794. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.121794. Epub 2019 Jul 12.

Authors

Kuan Shiong Khoo¹, Kit Wayne Chew¹, Chien Wei Ooi², Hwai Chyuan Ong³, Tau Chuan Ling⁴, Pau Loke Show⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
² Chemical Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway 47500, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴ Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. Electronic address: PauLoke.Show@nottingham.edu.my.

PMID: 31319214
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.121794

Abstract

This work aimed to study the application of liquid biphasic flotation (LBF) for the efficient and rapid recovery of astaxanthin from H. pluvialis microalgae. The performance of LBF for the extraction of astaxanthin was studied comprehensively under different operating conditions, including types and concentrations of food-grade alcohol and salt, volume ratio, addition of neutral salt, flotation period, and mass of dried H. pluvialis biomass powder. The maximum recovery, extraction efficiency and partition coefficient of astaxanthin obtained from the optimum LBF system were 95.11 ± 1.35%, 99.84 ± 0.05% and 385.16 ± 3.87, respectively. A scaled-up LBF system was also performed, demonstrating the feasibility of extracting natural astaxanthin from microalgae at a larger scale. This exploration of LBF system opens a promising avenue to the extraction of astaxanthin at lower cost and shorter processing time.

Keywords: Astaxanthin; Haematococcus pluvialis; Liquid biphasic flotation; Microalgae; Recovery.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Chlorophyceae
Microalgae*
Xanthophylls*

Substances

Xanthophylls
astaxanthine