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Updated: Jan 21, 2026
Changing the Direction and Orientation of Electric Field During Electric Pulses Application Improves Plasmid Gene Transfer in vitro
Published on: September 12, 2011
Pulsed electric field based cyclic protein extraction of microalgae towards closed-loop biorefinery concepts
Leandro Buchmann1, Ivraina Brändle1, Iris Haberkorn1
1ETH Zurich, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Institute of Food Nutrition and Health, IFNH, Laboratory of Sustainable Food Processing, Schmelzbergstrasse 9, Zurich 8092, Switzerland.
Abstract:
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. In this study, increasing protein extraction rates were observed with increasing electric field strength, up to 96.6 ± 4.8% of the free protein in the microalgae. However, increased extraction rates negatively influenced microalgae growth after PEF treatment. A free protein extraction rate up to 29.1 ± 1.1% without a significant influence on microalgal growth after 168 h was achieved (p = 0.788). Within the scope of this work, a protocol for continuous protein extraction during microalgae cultivation by PEF processing was developed. The incorporation of innovative downstream into upstream processing could be a viable future concept.
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