Chapter 12
Industrial Extraction of Microalgal
Pigments
Ronald Halim
Abstract Pigments are valuable commodity products that have found many applications in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. Under different light and
nutrient regimes, microalgal cells can be cultivated to accumulate a broad range
of valuable pigments throughout their life cycle. The effective recovery of these
pigments is critical to the development of a commercially viable and sustainable
microalgal bio-industry. In this chapter, the recovery of pigments from microalgal
biomass is examined. The chapter starts by evaluating the range of technological
options that are currently available for rupturing microalgal cell walls to release
intracellular pigments (high-pressure homogenisation, bead milling, ultrasonication,
pulse electric field, osmotic shock, microwave, enzymatic treatments and chemical
treatments). It then reviews a number of extraction technologies that can be used
to extract the released pigments from ruptured biomass (organic solvent extraction, pressurised solvent extraction, ionic liquid extraction and supercritical carbon
dioxide extraction) and examines the different biomass processing pathways that
have been recently studied for the recoveries of industrially valuable pigments from
algal sources (astaxanthin, β-carotene, phycoerythrin, phycocyanin). The last part of
the chapter evaluates the industrial scalability of pigment extraction in the context of
a biorefinery system that enables energy-efficient and cost-effective co-production
of lipids, proteins and pigments from microalgal biomass.
Keywords Microalgae pigment · Pigment extraction · Biomass pretreatment ·
Astaxanthin · B-carotene · Phycobiliprotein
R. Halim (B)
School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland
e-mail: ronald.halim@ucd.ie
Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E. Jacob-Lopes et al. (eds.), Pigments from Microalgae Handbook,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50971-2_12
265
Industrial Extraction of Microalgal
Pigments
Ronald Halim
Abstract Pigments are valuable commodity products that have found many applications in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. Under different light and
nutrient regimes, microalgal cells can be cultivated to accumulate a broad range
of valuable pigments throughout their life cycle. The effective recovery of these
pigments is critical to the development of a commercially viable and sustainable
microalgal bio-industry. In this chapter, the recovery of pigments from microalgal
biomass is examined. The chapter starts by evaluating the range of technological
options that are currently available for rupturing microalgal cell walls to release
intracellular pigments (high-pressure homogenisation, bead milling, ultrasonication,
pulse electric field, osmotic shock, microwave, enzymatic treatments and chemical
treatments). It then reviews a number of extraction technologies that can be used
to extract the released pigments from ruptured biomass (organic solvent extraction, pressurised solvent extraction, ionic liquid extraction and supercritical carbon
dioxide extraction) and examines the different biomass processing pathways that
have been recently studied for the recoveries of industrially valuable pigments from
algal sources (astaxanthin, β-carotene, phycoerythrin, phycocyanin). The last part of
the chapter evaluates the industrial scalability of pigment extraction in the context of
a biorefinery system that enables energy-efficient and cost-effective co-production
of lipids, proteins and pigments from microalgal biomass.
Keywords Microalgae pigment · Pigment extraction · Biomass pretreatment ·
Astaxanthin · B-carotene · Phycobiliprotein
R. Halim (B)
School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland
e-mail: ronald.halim@ucd.ie
Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
E. Jacob-Lopes et al. (eds.), Pigments from Microalgae Handbook,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50971-2_12
265