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10 Aquatic Plants and Algae Proteins
using the pulsed electric field-assisted extraction (Garcia et al. 2018). These are two
of the common microalgae which have been commercially explored for food and
non-food applications. Therefore, a commercially feasible method which increases
yield is bound to have significant commercial implications with a ready-to-adapt
market.
Other methods include microwave-assisted method (Barba et al. 2015), use of
subcritical water or supercritical CO 2 (Herrero et al. 2006; Dumay and Morancais
2016) and membrane technology where a semipermeable membrane is used to separate a component against a concentration gradient. This method is often preceded
by cell disruption by methods such as homogenization or enzyme treatment to make
the protein available in solution (Safi et al. 2017). These processes have the common
goal of developing means of disrupting the cell wall using extreme fluid properties
at specific temperature and pressure in order to aid extraction of the protein. All of
these processes are mostly limited by financial requirement of necessary facilities
and scale up of the process.
10.6 Environmental Implications
Extraction using more novel methods such as electrophoresis without additional
chemicals or heat input can be considered since it significantly results in significantly
higher yields and the electric current can be generated using green energy sources.
As the technology for extraction of protein from algae and plant biomass advances,
particularly in an age where more attention is being paid to environmental impact,
the research in this area is bound to move toward developing more environmentally
sustainable extraction processes which are financially feasible.
10.6.1 CO 2 Emission
Use of supercritical CO 2 could be a way of not only minimizing emissions but
also removal of CO 2 . This will, however, incur more cost in production which is
not commercially feasible. A tonne of microalgae requires to produce an estimated
1.8 tonnes of CO 2 (Kliphuis et al. 2010). Since the process of growing the biomass
removes CO 2 from the environment, it can be generally regarded as a CO 2 -negative
process. This is then weighed against the carbon emitted in the other processes
involved in the extraction of protein and going further down the value chain to the
packaging and transportation to final consumer.
10 Aquatic Plants and Algae Proteins
using the pulsed electric field-assisted extraction (Garcia et al. 2018). These are two
of the common microalgae which have been commercially explored for food and
non-food applications. Therefore, a commercially feasible method which increases
yield is bound to have significant commercial implications with a ready-to-adapt
market.
Other methods include microwave-assisted method (Barba et al. 2015), use of
subcritical water or supercritical CO 2 (Herrero et al. 2006; Dumay and Morancais
2016) and membrane technology where a semipermeable membrane is used to separate a component against a concentration gradient. This method is often preceded
by cell disruption by methods such as homogenization or enzyme treatment to make
the protein available in solution (Safi et al. 2017). These processes have the common
goal of developing means of disrupting the cell wall using extreme fluid properties
at specific temperature and pressure in order to aid extraction of the protein. All of
these processes are mostly limited by financial requirement of necessary facilities
and scale up of the process.
10.6 Environmental Implications
Extraction using more novel methods such as electrophoresis without additional
chemicals or heat input can be considered since it significantly results in significantly
higher yields and the electric current can be generated using green energy sources.
As the technology for extraction of protein from algae and plant biomass advances,
particularly in an age where more attention is being paid to environmental impact,
the research in this area is bound to move toward developing more environmentally
sustainable extraction processes which are financially feasible.
10.6.1 CO 2 Emission
Use of supercritical CO 2 could be a way of not only minimizing emissions but
also removal of CO 2 . This will, however, incur more cost in production which is
not commercially feasible. A tonne of microalgae requires to produce an estimated
1.8 tonnes of CO 2 (Kliphuis et al. 2010). Since the process of growing the biomass
removes CO 2 from the environment, it can be generally regarded as a CO 2 -negative
process. This is then weighed against the carbon emitted in the other processes
involved in the extraction of protein and going further down the value chain to the
packaging and transportation to final consumer.