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Recovery of Astaxanthin-Containing Oil from Haematococcus pluvialis by Nano-dispersion and Oil Partitioning

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Abstract

The feasibilities of cell disruption by homogenization-assisted high-pressure nano-dispersion and recovery of astaxanthin-containing oil by oil partitioning in oil-acetone-water solution were examined. The total fatty acid content of Haematococcus pluvialis was 414.6 mg/g cell, and the astaxanthin content was 4.4% of oil. Extra oil was added to the solution in order to recover oil through instability of dispersion status instead of solvent evaporation. A total amount of energy of 0.34 kWh/L was consumed for acetone evaporation at 50 °C, whereas fully 1.86 kWh/L of energy for water evaporation was consumed. When soybean oil was added to the solution after partial acetone evaporation, the oil-recovery yield was 97.8%, while the yield after full evaporation was 97.6% in 10-g/L solution. However, the energy consumed for partial evaporation (0.29 kWh/L) was much lower than that for full evaporation (0.40 kWh/L). When H. pluvialis oil was added to the solution after partial evaporation, the oil-recovery yield decreased to 90.6% due to the impurity of crude H. pluvialis oil in 10-g/L solution. Methods such as refining of H. pluvialis oil, increase of microalgae dosage for cell disruption, and increase of the injection amount of extra oil can help to enhance oil recovery.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Global Infrastructure Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (No. NRF-2018K1A3A1A61024274) and also was supported by the Energy Efficiency and Resources R&D project through the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) of Korea (No. 20152010201900).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomass and Waste Energy Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research, Daejeon, 34129, Republic of Korea

    Ji-Yeon Park, Sun-A Choi & Min-Cheol Kim

  2. School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan, 46241, Republic of Korea

    You-Kwan Oh

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  1. Ji-Yeon Park
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Correspondence to Ji-Yeon Park.

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Park, JY., Oh, YK., Choi, SA. et al. Recovery of Astaxanthin-Containing Oil from Haematococcus pluvialis by Nano-dispersion and Oil Partitioning. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 190, 1304–1318 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-019-03167-y

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