Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 May 8;15(1):16072.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-00235-8.

A green one pot approach for extracting free fatty acids from microalgae

Zijun Wu  1 , Yun Tang  1 , Manna Huang  2 , Yiqian Wan  1
Affiliations

A green one pot approach for extracting free fatty acids from microalgae

Zijun Wu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

A green one pot approach for extracting free fatty acids (FFAs) from microalgae has been established by combining bead milling and anion resin adsorption. In which, microalgae were initially pretreated by 10 min of bead milling for cell disruption and release of FFAs. Strong base anion resin was added in situ and solid-solid extraction was conducted for another 30 min. After further solid-liquid extraction was carried out at 25 °C for 2 h, FFAs were eluted with ethanol and acetic acid. For example, commercially available Spirulina platensis powder was quantitatively analyzed to afford the extraction rates of 87%, 77%, and 76% for palmitic acid, linolenic acid, and linoleic acid, respectively. Further, 7.0 mg/g of the three major FFAs from 0.25 g of Spirulina platensis have been determined. To scale up, 1 g of Spirulina platensis was applied to afford 6.3 mg of the three major FFAs with 8 g resins. Moreover, the extraction rates of major FFAs were determined to be 68%-92% for Picochlorum sp. and 53%-63% for mixed microalgae, respectively. It is suggested that this protocol without utilization of toxic organic solvents will benefit operators who engage in extracting FFAs in microalgae and producing FFA derivative products from microalgae.

Keywords: Bead milling; Free fatty acids; Green process; Microalgae; Strong base anion resin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The adsorption capacities of different resins, –OH denotes that resin underwent NaOH pretreatment, and –EtOH denotes that resin underwent ethanol pretreatment. (a) Amberlite® IRA402-OH, (b) Amberlite® IRA900-OH, (c) type 828-OH, (d) Amberlite® IRA402-OH-EtOH, (e) Amberlite® IRA900-OH-EtOH, (f) type 828-OH-EtOH.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
FT-IR spectra of (a) the hydroxide form 828 resins after linolenic acid adsorption and ethanol washing, (b) the original hydroxide form 828 resin, and (c) the chlorine form 828 resins after linolenic acid adsorption and ethanol washing.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The chemisorption and electrostatic interaction between FFAs and hydroxide form 828 resin.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The extraction rates of free fatty acids of (a) solid–solid extraction for 30 min, (b) solid–liquid extraction for 120 min, (c) combined solid–solid extraction and solid–liquid extraction; ****P < 0.0001.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The extraction rates of free fatty acids at (a) different time and (b) temperatures of solid–liquid extraction; ns: non-significant differences; **P < 0.01, ****P < 0.0001.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
The extraction rates of free fatty acids of different scales from Spirulina platensis. ns: non-significant differences; *P < 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sathasivam, R., Radhakrishnan, R., Hashem, A. & Abd Allah, E. F. Microalgae metabolites: A rich source for food and medicine. Saudi J. Biol. Sci.26, 709–722. 10.1016/j.sjbs.2017.11.003 (2019). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang, X. et al. Lipidomic analysis of microalgae and its application in microalgae cultivation and alternative liquid biofuel production. Biomass Convers. Biorefin. 10.1007/s13399-024-05510-8 (2024).
    1. Udayan, A. et al. Production of microalgae with high lipid content and their potential as sources of nutraceuticals. Phytochem. Rev.22, 833–860. 10.1007/s11101-021-09784-y (2023). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Balduyck, L. et al. Inhibition of lipolytic reactions during wet storage of T-Isochrysis lutea biomass by heat treatment. Algae Res.38. 10.1016/j.algal.2018.101388 (2019).
    1. Balduyck, L. et al. Integrity of the microalgal cell plays a major role in the lipolytic stability during wet storage. Algae Res.25, 516–524. 10.1016/j.algal.2017.06.013 (2017).

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources