EN
Dunaliella salina accumulates large amounts of
intracellular glycerol in response to the increases in salt
concentration, thus is a potential source for producing
fuel grade glycerol as an alternative to biodiesel-derived
crude glycerol. D. salina lacks a cell wall; therefore the
mode of harvesting Dunaliella cells is critical to avoid cell
disruption caused by extreme engineering conditions.
This study explored cell disruption and glycerol leakage
of D. salina under various centrifugal stresses during
cell harvesting. Results show a centrifugal g-force lower
than 5000 g caused little cell disruption, while a g-force
higher than 9000 g led to ~40% loss of the intact cells and
glycerol yields from the recovered algal pellets. Theoretical
calculations of the centrifugal stresses that could rupture
Dunaliella cells were in agreement with the experimental
results, indicating optimisation of centrifugation
conditions is important for recovering intact cells of
D. salina enriched in glycerol.