Pulsed Electric Field Treatment of Microalgae—Benefits for Microalgae Biomass Processing

In this paper, we demonstrate how pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment of microalgae biomass opens promising downstream processing options for an energetic use of algae. The fact that lipid droplets remain intracellular after treatment facilitates selective processing. After separation of the water-soluble cell contents, the algae lipids can be extracted with adequate solvents. The use of the environmental-friendly solvent ethanol results in an extraction yield from wet and dry biomass that, on average, is four times higher compared with untreated samples. Especially, the use of wet biomass opens a promising processing route for an energetic use of microalgae, because the energy consumed conventionally for drying of the biomass is considerably higher than the energy required for PEF treatment, i.e., ~ 1.5 MJ/kg of dry biomass.