Mar. Drugs 2016, 14(9), 162; https://doi.org/10.3390/md14090162
A Saponification Method for Chlorophyll Removal from Microalgae Biomass as Oil Feedstock
1
CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology (LMB-CAS), Guangdong Key Laboratory of Marine Materia Medica (LMMM-GD), South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China
2
Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Paul Long
Received: 29 April 2016 / Revised: 31 August 2016 / Accepted: 1 September 2016 / Published: 7 September 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances and New Perspectives in Marine Biotechnology II 2016)
Abstract
Microalgae oil is an optimal feedstock for nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and biodiesel production, but its high levels of chlorophyll limit its large-scale application. To date, few effective approaches have been developed to remove chlorophyll from microalgae oil. The main purpose of this study was to present a preprocessing method of algae oil feedstock (Scenedesmus) to remove chlorophyll by saponification. The results showed that 96% of chlorophyll in biomass was removed. High quality orange transparent oil could be extracted from the chlorophyll reduced biomass. Specifically, the proportion of neutral lipids and saturation levels of fatty acids increased, and the pigments composition became carotenoids-based. The critical parameters of chlorophyll reduced biodiesel conformed to the standards of the USA, China and EU. Sodium copper chlorophyllin could be prepared from the bleaching effluent. The results presented herein offer a useful pathway to improve the quality of microalgae oil and reduce the cost of microalgae biodiesel. View Full-TextKeywords:
microalgae oil; chlorophyll removal; saponification; Scenedesmus; sodium copper chlorophyllin
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Li, T.; Xu, J.; Wu, H.; Wang, G.; Dai, S.; Fan, J.; He, H.; Xiang, W. A Saponification Method for Chlorophyll Removal from Microalgae Biomass as Oil Feedstock. Mar. Drugs 2016, 14, 162.
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