Spirulina sp. biomass dried/disrupted by different methods and their application in biofilms production

Arthrospira Spirulina biomass is a source of intracellular compounds with great commercial interest, such as phycocyanin and phenolic compounds. In this work, different cell disruption methods of the microalgae biomass dried in spouted bed and in conventional tray were performed, aiming lead to the better extraction yields of these compounds. The samples of both drying techniques with the most suitable cell disruption were used to biofilms production. FTIR, DSC, and SEM for all samples were performed. The samples dried in spouted bed with cell disruption by milling and by microwave showed the best results for the powder products, with phycocyanin contents of 75.0 and 85.4 mg g^-1, and total phenolic compounds of 41.6 and 41.9 mg g^-1, respectively. However, the tray drying/milling produced the biofilms with the best characteristics (tensile strength of 3.69 MPa and water vapor permeability of 1.67 × 10^-11 g m s^-1 m^-2 Pa^-1) and the highest thermal stability.