Ricerc@Sapienza

An enzymatic treatment with cell wall degrading enzymes aimed at improving the recovery of lipids from Chlorella sorokiniana was investigated. Six commercial enzyme preparations containing cellulase, pectinase, lysozyme and three different hemicellulases were preliminary tested. The most effective preparations were then used as basic components for the formulation of enzyme cocktails with high cell wall degrading activity. Experiments were carried out according to the mixture design methodology. Analysis of the results revealed the occurrence of both synergistic and antagonistic effects which were, respectively, attributed to the cooperative destructuring of the cell wall and to non-productive competitive adsorption phenomena. A numerical optimization procedure was used to design an optimal enzyme mixture containing β-1,4-xylanase and β-1,4-mannanase in the ratio of 61:39 (% w/w). Pretreatment of C. sorokiniana by this mixture provided a lipid extraction yield of (74.74 ± 1.02)%. For comparison, the extraction yields from the untreated and water-pretreated biomass were, respectively, equal to (36.19 ± 2.33)% and (58.36 ± 1.22)%.