Sequential recovery of C-phycocyanin and chlorophylls from Anabaena cylindrica

abstract

Cyanobacteria are attracting the attention worldwide as a reliable and sustainable feedstock for the production of biofuels, food colorants and biochemically active compounds. Anabaena cylindrica (A. cylindrica) is a cyanobacterium with a significant widespread occurrence in Portuguese freshwaters, with C-phycocyanin and chlorophylls, compounds with a high market value, being abundantly produced by the species. This work presents the development of a sequential downstream process to obtain C-phycocyanin and chlorophyll from A. cylindrica. The C-phycocyanin extraction is carried using Na-phosphate (20 mM, pH 7) buffer, while aqueous solutions of surface-active compounds (250 mM), as well as ethanol, were screened for the extraction of the chlorophylls. After selecting the best solvents to recover both pigments from A. cylindrica , the operational conditions (solid-liquid ratio, time of extraction and temperature) were optimized, allowing the recovery of around 90% and 55% of the total content of C-phycocyanin and chlorophylls, respectively. Finally, dextran/ copolymer-based ABS were applied to promote the purification of C-phycocyanin from the residual chlorophylls and other contaminant proteins, leading to an increase in the C-phycocyanin purity of 4-fold, without compromising its photostability.

keywords

AQUEOUS 2-PHASE SYSTEMS; IONIC-LIQUID; MEDIATED EXTRACTION; BIPHASIC SYSTEMS; EFFICIENT METHOD; BLOCK-COPOLYMER; DRY BIOMASS; PURIFICATION; SEPARATION; OPTIMIZATION

subject category

Engineering, Chemical

authors

Sintra, TE; Bagagem, SS; Ahsaie, FG; Fernandes, A; Martins, M; Macario, IPE; Pereira, JL; Goncalves, FJM; Pazuki, G; Coutinho, JAP; Ventura, SPM

Groups

G4 - Renewable Materials and Circular Economy

Projects

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020)

CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDP/50011/2020)

SusPhotoSolutions - Soluções Fotovoltaicas Sustentáveis (SUSPHOTOSOLUTIONS)

acknowledgements

This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECOAveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020, and CESAM -Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020), financed by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)/MCTES. The authors are also grateful for the partial financial support of I&D SusPhotoSolutions (CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000005), and the project PTDC/BTA-BTA/30914/2017, and the individual research grants of M. Martins and I.P.E. Macario by FCT (SFRH/BD/122220/2016 and SFRH/BD/123850/2016, respectively). J.L. Pereira is funded by national funds (OE), through FCT I.P., in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19.