Continuous nanosecond pulsed electric field treatments foster the upstream performance of Chlorella vulgaris-based biorefinery concepts.

Nanosecond pulsed electric field treatment (nsPEF) is an innovative, technology-driven, and resource-efficient approach to foster the upstream performance of microalgae-based biorefinery concepts to transform microalgae into economic more viable raw materials for the biobased industry. A processing window applying three treatments of 100 ns, 5 Hz, and 10 kV cm to industrially relevant phototrophic Chlorella vulgaris in the early exponential growth phase significantly increased biomass yields by up to 17.53 ± 10.

Pulsed electric field based cyclic protein extraction of microalgae towards closed-loop biorefinery concepts.

Microalgae-based biorefinery concepts can contribute to providing sufficient resources for a growing world population. However, the performance needs to be improved, which requires innovative technologies and processes. Continuous extraction from Chlorella vulgaris cultures via pulsed electric field (PEF) processing might be a viable process to increase the performance of microalgae-based biorefinery concepts.