Fucoxanthin is a brown-colored pigment from algae, with great potential as a bioactive molecule due to its numerous properties. This review aims to present current knowledge on this high added-value ...pigment. An accurate analysis of the biological function of fucoxanthin explains its wide photon absorption capacities in golden-brown algae. The specific chemical structure of this pigment also leads to many functional activities in human health. They are outlined in this work and are supported by the latest studies in the literature. The scientific and industrial interest in fucoxanthin is correlated with great improvements in the development of algae cultures and downstream processes. The best fucoxanthin producing algae and their associated culture parameters are described. The light intensity is a major influencing factor, as it has to enable both a high biomass growth and a high fucoxanthin content. This review also insists on the most eco-friendly and innovative extraction methods and their perspective within the next years. The use of bio-based solvents, aqueous two-phase systems and the centrifugal partition chromatography are the most promising processes. The analysis of the global market and multiple applications of fucoxanthin revealed that Asian companies are major actors in the market with macroalgae. In addition, fucoxanthin from microalgae are currently produced in Israel and France, and are mostly authorized in the USA.
Anthocyanins are natural pigments displaying different attractive colors ranging from red, violet, to blue. These pigments present health benefits that increased their use in food, nutraceuticals, ...and the cosmetic industry. However, anthocyanins are mainly extracted through conventional methods that are time-consuming and involve the use of organic solvents. Moreover, the chemical diversity of the obtained complex extracts make the downstream purification step challenging. Therefore, the growing demand of these high-value pigments has stimulated the interest in designing new, safe, cost-effective, and tunable strategies for their extraction and purification. The current review focuses on the potential application of compressed fluid-based (such as subcritical and supercritical fluid extraction and pressurized liquid extraction) and deep eutectic solvents-based extraction methods for the recovery of anthocyanins. In addition, an updated review of the application of counter-current chromatography for anthocyanins purification is provided as a faster and cost-effective alternative to preparative-scale HPLC.
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Itaconic acid is a biomolecule with potential application in various products, substituting feedstocks within the petrochemical industry. Simulations of different downstream trains were done to ...compare the method currently used in industry for recovery of itaconic acid with a) adsorption, b) reactive extraction and c) electrodialysis, to evaluate the most advantageous process considering production costs. In these simulations, adsorption is the method with greater potential to substitute the crystallization as the main downstream method, followed by reactive extraction, which showed values close to those of crystallization. The only non-competitive method was electrodialysis. The processing costs of itaconic acid were estimated at 1.13 US$ kg−1 for the upstream and fermentation, and extra 0.89, 0.63, 0.88, 1.50 US$ kg−1 for crystallization, adsorption, extraction, and electrodialysis-based processes, respectively.
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•A techno-economic analysis was done to determine itaconic acid production costs.•Recovery of itaconic acid was simulated with different recovery methods.•Crystallization, adsorption, reactive extraction, and electrodialysis were compared.
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Microalgae have an outstanding capacity to efficiently produce value-added compounds. They have been inspiring researchers worldwide to develop a blue biorefinery, supporting the development of the ...bioeconomy, tackling the environmental crisis, and mitigating the depletion of natural resources. In this review, the characteristics of the carotenoids produced by microalgae are presented and the downstream processes developed to recover and purify them are analyzed, considering their main applications. The ongoing activities and initiatives taking place in Portugal regarding not only research, but also industrialization under the blue biorefinery concept are also discussed. The situation reported here shows that new techniques must be developed to make microalgae production more competitive. Downstream pigment purification technologies must be developed as they may have a considerable impact on the economic viability of the process. Government incentives are needed to encourage a constructive interaction between academics and businesses in order to develop a biorefinery that focuses on high-grade chemicals.
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Herbicides play a vital role in agriculture, contributing to increased crop productivity by minimizing weed growth, but their low degradability presents a threat to the environment and human health. ...Allelochemicals, such as DIBOA (2,4-dihydroxy-(2H)-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4 H)-one), are secondary metabolites released by certain plants that affect the survival or growth of other organisms. Although these metabolites have an attractive potential for use as herbicides, their low natural production is a critical hurdle. Previously, the synthesis of the biologically active analog D-DIBOA (4-hydroxy-(2H)-1,4-benzoxazin-3(4H)-one) was achieved, using an engineered E. coli strain as a whole-cell biocatalyst, capable of transforming a precursor compound into D‐DIBOA and exporting it into the culture medium, although it cannot be directly applied to crops. Here a chromatographic method to purify D-DIBOA from this cell culture medium without producing organic solvent wastes is described. The purification of D-DIBOA from a filtered culture medium to the pure compound could also be automated. Biological tests with the purified compound on weed models showed that it has virtually the same activity than the chemically synthesized D-DIBOA.
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•Design of a 3-steps D-DIBOA purification method without organic solvent wastes.•Novel affinity chromatography for the purification of benzohydroxamic acids.•Prototype for the automation of D-DIBOA purification from whole-cell biocatalysis.•Both biological and synthetic D-DIBOA have the same herbicide activity.
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Two-Step Purification of L-Asparaginase from Acrylaway® L Tundisi, Louise Lacalendola; Coêlho, Diego de Freitas; Faria, Alessandra Valéria de Sousa ...
Brazilian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
01/2022, Volume:
58
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Abstract L-Asparaginase (L-ASNase) is a biopharmaceutical used for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) treatment, dramatically increasing the patients’ chance of cure. However, its production and ...distribution in developing countries were disrupted because of its low profitability, which caused great concern among patients. This study evaluates the feasibility of combining fractional precipitation and aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) to purify L-ASNase from a low-grade product, commercially known as Acrylaway® L. The ATPS purification results were not particularly expressive compared to the two-step purification process composed of ethanol precipitation and gel filtration, which was able to recover the target molecule with a purification factor over 5 fold. Thus, we studied a purification process capable of manufacturing pharmaceutical grade L-ASNase from a commercially available low-grade raw material; however, improvements regarding its throughput must be achieved, and high purity is the first step to apply it as a new biopharmaceutical product. The proposed process could pose as a short-time solution to mitigate its shortage while a cost-effective production plant is being developed.
Design and optimization of microalgae processes have traditionally relied on the application of unsegregated mathematical models, thus neglecting the impact of cell-to-cell heterogeneity. However, ...there is experimental evidence that the latter one, including but not limited to variation in mass/size, internal composition and cell cycle phase, can play a crucial role in both cultivation and downstream processes. Population balance equations (PBEs) represent a powerful approach to develop mathematical models describing the effect of cell-to-cell heterogeneity. In this work, the potential of PBEs for the analysis and design of microalgae processes are discussed. A detailed review of PBE applications to microalgae cultivation, harvesting and disruption is reported. The review is largely focused on the application of the univariate size/mass structured PBE, where the size/mass is the only internal variable used to identify the cell state. Nonetheless, the need, addressed by few studies, for additional or alternative internal variables to identify the cell cycle phase and/or provide information about the internal composition is discussed. Through the review, the limitations of previous studies are described, and areas are identified where the development of more reliable PBE models, driven by the increasing availability of single-cell experimental data, could support the understanding and purposeful exploitation of the mechanisms determining cell-to-cell heterogeneity.
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Electrified downstream processes for biotechnologically produced carboxylic acids reduce waste salt generation significantly and make biotechnological production ecologically and economically more ...attractive. In order to design, optimize, scale-up and control electrochemically induced crystallization processes, knowledge of the metastable zone width (MSZW) is essential. An optical observation approach of nucleation processes close to the electrode and determination of the MSZW is presented. This work presents a method for MSZW measurements for electrochemically induced pH-shift crystallization processes by monitoring the nucleation, the saturation pH value and saturation concentration for different current densities. The measured MSZWs for electrochemically induced pH-shift crystallization are narrow due to the foreign surface, gas bubbles and electrode surface, and rising current densities lead to even smaller MSZW. Nucleation parameters are estimated from MSWZ data, adapting the classical approach of Nývlt to electrochemically induced crystallization.
Research in Advanced Biofuels steadily developed during recent years. A number of highly innovative technologies have been explored at various scale: among these, lignocellulosic ethanol and CTO ...(Crude Tall Oil)-biofuel technologies already achieved the early-commercial status, while hydrotreating of vegetable oils (HVO, or HEFA) can be considered today fully commercial. However, despite the level of innovation in each specific technological process under consideration, the feedstock maintains a central role in making a biofuel chain really sustainable. In this context, microalgae grown in salt-water and arid areas offers a considerable opportunity for advanced biofuel production: at the same time, however, they also represent a considerable challenge. Processing microalgae in an economic way into a viable and sustainable liquid biofuel (a low-cost mass-produced product) is not trivial. So far, the main attention has been given to cultivating the microorganism, accumulating lipids, extracting the oil, valorising co-products, and treating the algae oil into biodiesel (through esterification) or HEFA (Hydrotreated Esthers and Fatty Acids), this second one representing a very high quality biofuels, almost a drop-in fuel (suitable either for road transport or for aviation), which production exceed 2 Mt y-1 today.
However, extracting the algae oil at low cost and at industrial scale is not yet a full industrial mature process, and the still limited market size of algae-to-biofuels makes difficult the development of industrial-scale systems. Nevertheless, another option can be considered, i.e. processing the whole algae into dedicated thermochemical reactors, thus approaching the downstream processing of algae in a completely different way from separation.
The present work examines the possible routes for thermochemical conversion of microalgae, distinguishing between dry-processes (namely pyrolysis and gasification) and wet-processes (near critical water hydrothermal liquefaction and hydrothermal gasification). Typical expected elementary composition of major products is given. Main peculiarities of batch versus continuous processing are also discussed from an engineering point of view.
Major engineering advantages and challenges in thermochemically conversion of algae are identified and discussed, in view of the production of a transport biofuel. Finally, future perspectives for each route are given in terms of current and expected technological readiness level.
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The production of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BDO), a dialcohol of great interest for the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industry, through the fermentation of biomass, is a sustainable process strategic ...position for countries with abundant biomass generated by the agribusiness. However, the downstream process of 2,3-BDO is onerous due to the complexity of fermentation broth and the physical-chemical characteristics of the 2,3-BDO. This study investigated the feasibility of 2,3-BDO extraction from model aqueous solutions using aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS). A central composite rotational design (CCRD) was employed to evaluate different ATPS compositions and the influences on the 2,3-BDO recovery and partition coefficient. The polyethylene glycol (PEG) and different concentrations of sodium citrate, ammonium sulfate, and potassium phosphate were investigated. The concentration of salt and PEG in the ATPS was identified as the most significant factors influencing the recovery and partition coefficient of 2,3-BDO. The recovery of 2,3-BDO reached 94.5% and was obtained when the system was composed of 36.22% (w/w) of PEG 4000 and 4.47% (w/w) of potassium phosphate. The results indicate that ATPS based on PEG-salt has a high potential for industrial application, using mild conditions and a simple process for recovering and purifying the 2,3-BDO produced from microbiological synthesis.
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