Environmental impact of phycocyanin recovery from Spirulina platensis cyanobacterium

Phycocyanin is a pigment-protein complex which is used into various food products to enhance their nutritional qualities acting as food colorant, antioxidant and emulsifier, which can sufficiently replace or reduce the use of synthetic additives. For the effective recovery of phycocyanin, the nutrient should be extracted from the microalgae biomass of Spirulina platensis. The steps to achieve that include the cultivation and harvesting of the microalgae, the drying of the biomass if necessary and the extraction process. However, these steps are resource and energy demanding processes which can affect the environmental footprint and the cost of the final product. Looking for more efficient practices combinations of materials (wet or dried biomass) and solvents (water, buffer and ethanol), which are currently used industrially, were examined in order to evaluate and suggest the most sustainable production line for phycocyanin.