Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (Sep 2020)

Pulsed Electric Field Treatment Promotes Lipid Extraction on Fresh Oleaginous Yeast Saitozyma podzolica DSM 27192

  • Olga Gorte,
  • Natalja Nazarova,
  • Ioannis Papachristou,
  • Rüdiger Wüstner,
  • Klaus Leber,
  • Christoph Syldatk,
  • Katrin Ochsenreither,
  • Wolfgang Frey,
  • Aude Silve

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2020.575379
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8

Abstract

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This study reports on the use of pulsed electric field (PEF) as a pre-treatment step to enhance lipid extraction yield using extraction with ethanol-hexane blend on fresh oleaginous yeast Saitozyma podzolica. The yeasts were cultivated on nitrogen-depleted condition and had a lipid content of 26.4 ± 4.6% of dry weight. PEF-treatment was applied on the yeast suspension either directly after harvesting (unwashed route) or after a washing step (washed route) which induced a reduction of conductivity by a factor eight. In both cases, cell concentration was 20 g of biomass per liter of suspension. In the unwashed route, the lipid extraction efficiency increased from 7% (untreated) to 54% thanks to PEF-treatment. In case an additional washing step was added after PEF-treatment, up to 81% of the lipid content could be recovered. The washed route was even more efficient since lipid extraction yields increased from 26% (untreated) to 99% of total lipid. The energy input for the PEF-treatment never exceeded 150 kJ per liter of initial suspension. The best lipid recovery scenario was obtained using pulses of 1 μs, an electric field of 40 kV/cm and it required slightly less than 11 MJ/kgLIPID. This amount of energy can be further reduced by at least a factor five by optimizing the treatment and especially by increasing the concentration of the treated biomass. The process can be easily up-scaled and does not require any expensive handling of the biomass such as freezing or freeze-drying. These findings demonstrate the potential benefit of PEF-treatment in the downstream processing of oleaginous yeast. From a basic research point of view, the influence of conductivity on PEF energy requirements and extraction yields was examined, and results suggest a higher efficiency of PEF-treatment in terms of energy when treatment is performed at lower conductivity.

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