Extraction of Lipids from Chlorella saccharophila Using High-Pressure Homogenization Followed by Three Phase Partitioning.

Commercial exploitation of microalgae for biofuel and food ingredients is hindered due to laborious extraction protocols and use of hazardous chemicals. Production of lipids in the microalga grown in modified BG11 medium was evaluated to arrive at the appropriate harvesting conditions. The use of three phase partitioning (TPP) as a green approach for extraction of lipids from Chlorella saccharophila was investigated. Cells disrupted by probe sonication were used for separation of lipids by TPP. The TPP-optimized conditions of 30 % ammonium sulfate, using slurry/t-butanol of 1:0.75 for 60 min at 25 to 35 °C, showed a lipid recovery of 69.05 ± 3.12 % (w/w) as against 100 % (w/w) by using chloroform-methanol extraction. Subsequently, parameters of high-pressure homogenization for cell disruption were optimized for maximum recovery of lipids by TPP. A final recovery of 89.91 ± 3.69 % (w/w) lipids was obtained along with ∼1.26 % w/w carotenoids of dry biomass in the t-butanol layer and protein content of ∼12 % w/w of dry biomass in the middle protein layer due to ammonium sulfate precipitation, after performing TPP under the optimized conditions.