Chlorophyll Extraction from Microalgae: A Review on the Process Engineering Aspects

Table 1

Previous studies on organic solvent extraction of microalgal chlorophyll.

Study	Algae species	Solvent	Cell disruption	Key results
Jeffrey et al. [4]	Phytoplankton	Methanol (90%), ethanol (90%), ethanol (100%), DMF	All	DMF is superior to all the other solvents used and cell lysis improves extraction in all cases.
Macías-Sánchez et al. [33]	Dunaliella Salina	DMF Methanol	Ultrasound	DMF was found to be more efficient methanol.
Sartory & Grobbelaar [34]	Scenedesmus quadricauda, Selenastrum capricornutum,Microcystysis aeruginosa	Ethanol (95%), methanol,acetone (90%)	Homogenisation, sonication, boiling	(1) Methanol and 95% ethanol were superior to 90% acetone.
				(2) Boiling the algae in either methanol or 95% ethanol for 5 minutes and allowing extraction for 24 hours resulted in the complete extraction of pigments without any formation of degradation products.
Schuman et al. [35]	Stichococcus, Chlorella	Acetone,DMF	Grinding, Ultrasoun, bead beater	(1) DMF was found to be the most efficient solvent.
				(2) Acetone extracted 56-100% of the amount of chlorophyll a extracted by DMF.
				(3) DMF does not require cell disruption.
				(4) Freeze drying before analysis aids extraction
Simon & Helliwell [36]	Freshwater algaeSelenastrum obliquus	Methanol and acetone	Probe sonication, bath sonication, tissue grinding, mortar and pestle	Under sonication, methanol removed 3x more pigment than acetone. Under tissue grinding, methanol removed 20% more than acetone.