ABSTRACT
Microalgae are receiving a lot of attention both from academic and industrial researchers, as they are a source of various biomolecules for commercial applications ranging from nutraceuticals to fuels. A significant amount of research has been done on the possibilities of increasing the bioactive compounds in microalgae during cultivation. But if we are not able to efficiently extract them, the whole purpose of increasing the bioactive compounds in the biomass is in vain. To this end, achieving efficient cell disruption is a crucial step. The efficiency of the cell disruption method depends on various parameters, such as composition of the cell wall/membrane, location of the desired biomolecule in microalgae, and growth stage of microalgae during harvesting. Achieving higher yields while still maintaining the functionality of these biomolecules is a big challenge to downstream processing. This chapter provides useful information on various mechanical (bead milling, homogenization, ultrasound-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, pulsed electric field-assisted extraction) and non-mechanical (enzymatic and chemical) microalgal cell disruption methods and their synergistic combinations for the recovery of intracellular bioactive compounds from microalgae. Their mechanism of operation, advantages, constraints and recent advancements are summarized, as well as providing future directions for this research area.
