Title:
Green Extraction and Characterisation of Ulvan from Residual Ulva Rigida Alga Recovered from Orbetello Lagoon
Author(s):
Di Fidio, N., Fulignati, S., Vento, M., Pistelli, L., Pardossi, A., Raspolli Galletti, A.M.
Document(s):
Paper
Poster
Abstract:
Ulva species have high growth rates across different geo-climatic conditions, thus they can provoke the formation of problematic “green tides”, related to the eutrophication phenomena. To solve this problem, a large amount of algal biomass is currently removed, representing a kind of waste often disposed of in landfill or incinerators. However, Ulva has a highly exploitable chemical composition and its major product of interest is ulvan. This has promising applications in biomaterial science, nutraceuticals, functional foods and agriculture. In the present study, Ulva rigida recovered from the Orbetello lagoon (Tuscany, Italy) was characterised in terms of biomass particle size, chemical composition, elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and infrared spectroscopy. The effect of the main extraction reaction parameters, such as temperature (60–120 °C), pH (1–7), reaction time (30–150 min) and type of heating system (traditional, microwaves and ultrasounds), was investigated to maximise the ulvan extraction yield and purity. Under the optimised extraction conditions under traditional heating (120 °C, pH 7, 90 min, 50 g/L biomass loading), the ulvan yield of 77 wt% with respect to the total sugars content and of 27 wt% with respect to the alga dry weight were achieved. Finally, the extracted ulvan was characterised and its chemical composition confirmed the high purity having a low content of proteins and ash.
Keywords:
algae, biorefinery, green chemistry, biobased economy, ulva rigida, ulvan
Topic:
Sustainable Resources for Decarbonising the Economy
Subtopic:
Algae and aquatic biomass production systems
Event:
31st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
1DV.3.10
Pages:
250 - 256
ISBN:
978-88-89407-23-3
Paper DOI:
10.5071/31stEUBCE2023-1DV.3.10
Price:
FREE
