Oxidative and lipolytic stability of lipids in autotrophic microalgal biomass during storage and drying.

Autotrophic microalgae are unicellular aquatic organisms that immobilize CO2 from atmosphere and produce oxygen by photosynthesis. Microalgae contain a relatively high amount of lipids and are consequently a promising alternative source of biodiesel. The lipids from several microalgae contain also nutritionally interesting omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, which makes them interesting for several food and other high value applications.

The production process of microalgae consists of several steps: cultivation, harvesting, drying and further processing steps (e.g. cell disruption and extraction) depending on the specific application. During each of these steps and during (intermediate) storage, the lipids in microalgae are susceptible to lipolysis, which has detrimental effects on flavor, nutritional value and efficiency of biofuel production. Despite the importance of lipolytic stability, this topic has been subject of only a very limited amount of studies.

The aim of this project is to study the lipolytic stability of lipids in autotrophic microalgal biomass during storage of wet biomass, with a focus on different factors determining the lipolytic stability and strategies to improve it.