Supercritical CO₂ Extraction of Chlorophyll a from Spirulina platensis with a Static Modifier

Abstract

Supercritical CO 2 extraction with a static modifier was applied to extract chlorophyll a from Spirulina platensis. The effects of the process were investigated by single-factor and response surface analysis experiments. The optimal process parameters for supercritical CO 2 extraction were determined to be: ethanol/water as the modifier, 40 vol.-% water content in the modifier, 21.2 mL modifier volume, 1 h static soaking time, 2 h dynamic extraction time, 48.7 MPa extraction pressure, 326.4 K extraction temperature, and 10 g min -1 CO 2 flow rate. The optimized chlorophyll a extraction yield was 6.84 mg g -1. A comparison of the experimental results suggested that the yield of chlorophyll a by supercritical CO 2 extraction with modifier was higher than that obtained by conventional solvent extraction.

Carotenoids, chlorophylls and phycocyanin from Spirulina: supercritical CO2 and water extraction methods for added value products cascade

“…Their comparison experiments demonstrated that scCO 2 extraction with modifier was more efficient than conventional solvent methods. Their results are also in numerical agreement with the present work (their extraction yield was 6.84 mg g -1 ) 39 . Macías-Sánchez et al, recovered only low amount of chlorophylls, if compared to results obtained in this work, due to the absence of any modifier in the extraction process 40 .…”

“…Nevertheless, only few investigations are available on the extraction of chlorophyll a using scCO 2 . Some works in the literature employed a co-solvent to enhance the supercritical fluid solvating power towards the molecule 39,40 . Carotenoids-free spirulina biomass underwent scCO 2 extraction with the addition of ethanol as co-solvent, to enhance the extraction yield towards more polar compounds.…”

Selective Extraction of Lutein from Alcohol Treated Chlorella vulgaris by Supercritical CO2

“…Moreover, the elution pretreatment method makes it possible to achieve a 10-% selectivity of lutein, which is higher than that obtained with the previous method of Kitada et al [7] under the same extraction conditions. It can be explained that ethanol acts not only as an elution solvent but also as a solvent causing swelling of the C. vulgaris cell matrix during the soaking process [20] and enhancing the solubility of lutein in the SCCO 2 extraction process [7][8][9][10]. From this, it can be inferred that prolonging the soaking time [11] of C. vulgaris could assist the mass transfer of the SCCO 2 extraction process, resulting in an increase in the amount of lutein in the extract.…”

Recovery of Chlorophyll a Derivative from Spirulina maxima: Its Purification and Photosensitizing Potential

“…Although an economic and environmental analysis was not performed in this work, there are several indications of the environmentally friendly nature and economic viability of this process, namely, the reuse of the solvents in new cycles of extraction, 15,34 the multiproduct scenario represented by this process and the fact that this process employs an aqueous solution of an ammonium-based IL (representing the cheapest family 40 ) instead of a pure organic solvent. 40 Photosensitizing Potential of the Extracts.…”

“…The assay suggests a SLR of 0.024 g dry biomass mL solvent –1 and a time of extraction of 43.9 min as optimal conditions. These conditions were experimentally tested in triplicate, and the maximum value of extraction was confirmed as being 3.50 ± 0.19 mg chl g dry biomass –1 , which is in agreement with the values previously published regarding the extraction of chlorophyll from Spirulina sp. ,− …”