Lipid recovery from Nannochloropsis gaditana using the wet pathway: Investigation of the operating parameters of bead milling and centrifugal extraction

The aim of this work is to track and optimize lipid recovery from Nannochloropsis gaditana in wet extraction operations. No significant differences in biomass concentration were found when disrupting microalgal suspensions of up to 30 g/L dry weight, but disruption efficiency differed depending on their physiological states. It took 5.8 min in a bed milling device to disrupt 80% of the cells in a nitrogen-depleted culture (10-30 g/L), compared to 4.8 min for a nitrogen-replete culture (10-30 g/L). The fatty acids released were then recovered by two different methods: one using a centrifugal partition extractor device and the other using a continuous centrifugal extractor device. For the latter, Box-Behnken RSM analysis showed that the interaction between biomass concentration and solvent inlet rate had the greatest influence on lipid recovery. Up to 84% of the triacylglycerol was recovered using 7.9 g/L of algal suspension at 5.4 mL/min, and treated with 8.9 mL/min of 2methyl-tetra-hydrofuran.

Automated summary

The aim of this study is to track and optimize the extraction of lipids from Nannochloropsis gaditana in wet extraction operations. Disruption efficiency of microalgal suspensions varied depending on their physiological states, with different methods used to recover the fatty acids released. The interaction between biomass concentration and solvent inlet rate was found to have the greatest influence on lipid recovery.