A novel cell disruption technique to enhance lipid extraction from microalgae.

Lipid extraction represents one of the main bottlenecks of the microalgal technology for the production of biofuels. A novel method based on the use of H2O2 with or without FeSO4, to disrupt the cell wall of Chlorella vulgaris and favor the subsequent extraction of lipids from wet biomass, is proposed. Experimental results show that, when disruption is performed under suitable operating conditions, the amount of lipids extracted is significantly increased with respect to the case where a classical approach is applied. Moreover, quality of lipids extracted after disruption seems to be improved in view of their exploitation for producing biofuels.

Comprehensive modeling and investigation of the effect of iron on the growth rate and lipid accumulation of Chlorella vulgaris cultured in batch photobioreactors.

Recent works have shown that specific strains of microalgae are capable to simultaneously increase their growth rate and lipid content when cultured under suitable concentrations of iron. While these results are promising in view of the exploitation of microalgae for producing biofuels, to the best of our knowledge, no mathematical model capable to describe the effect of iron on lipid accumulation in microalgae, has been so far proposed. A comprehensive mathematical model describing the effect of iron on chlorophyll synthesis, nitrogen assimilation, growth rate and lipid accumulation in a freshwater strain of Chlorella vulgaris is then proposed in this work. Model results are successfully compared with experimental data which confirm the positive effect of growing iron concentrations on lipid productivity of C. vulgaris. Thus, the proposed model might represent a useful tool to optimize iron-based strategies to improve the lipid productivity of microalgal cultures.