Integrated ultrasound-assisted liquid biphasic flotation for efficient extraction of astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis

The purpose of this investigation is to evaluate the implementation of ultrasound-assisted liquid biphasic flotation (LBF) system for the recovery of natural astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis microalgae. Various operating conditions of ultrasound-assisted LBF systems such as the position of ultrasound horn, mode of ultrasonication (pulse and continuous), amplitude of ultrasonication, air flowrate, duration of air flotation, and mass of H. pluvialis microalgae were evaluated. The effect of ultrasonication on the cellular morphology of microalgae was also assessed using microscopic analysis. Under the optimized operating conditions of UALBF, the maximum recovery yield, extraction efficiency, and partition coefficient of astaxanthin were 95.08 +/- 3.02%, 99.74 +/- 0.05%, and 185.09 +/- 4.78, respectively. In addition, the successful scale-up operation of ultrasound-assisted LBF system verified the practicability of this integrated approach for an effective extraction of natural astaxanthin.