Rashi Vishwakarma
Indian Institute of Technology, India
Title: Simultaneous cultivation and extraction of selectively enriched omega-rich fatty acids and other high value products
Biography
Biography: Rashi Vishwakarma
Abstract
The chemically complex and structurally robust nature of algal cell walls, many current extraction processes require large chemical or energy loads. Cell disruption using enzymes is an alternative for lipid extraction that has been poorly studied for algal cells. Enzymatic degradation of the algal cell walls prior to lipid extraction has the potential to facilitate both lipid extraction and post-extraction use of the algal biomass. This results in a good lipid recovery with the advantage of disrupting cells with minimal damage to the target product due to high selectivity of the reactions.
This approach is not yet commercialized due to the high costs of upstream processes that are associated with the time consuming and/or energy intensive drying, and lipid extraction processes. An improved permeable cell to allow simultaneous cultivation and extraction using biocompatible solvents and selectively enriched with omega rich fatty acids through commercial lipases has not been reported so far. This technology can substitute the costly chemical processing methods with milder enzymatic processing providing high quality omega fatty acids from microalgae which can replace fish oil derived fatty acids. This can establish microalgae as an alternative resource for fish oil derived omega fatty acids for food and nutraceuticals. Such a technology developed can find applications in food industries producing infant formula, beverages, nutritional supplements, pharmaceuticals, animal food supplements. The method offers opportunities for waste utilization for biomass valorization.