Breaking the Cells while Keeping the Value: Mild Cell Disruption for Microalgae Biorefineries

Regarding commercialization challenges and future research directions this PhD research focused on improvements in cell disruption of microalgae. More specifically the aim of this PhD is “Breaking the Cells while Keeping the Value”. The cost effectiveness, cell disruption ratio, treatment time, extractability and recoverability of products are considered as key aspects. The innovative aspects of this PhD research project are translated in the following Research Questions:

1. What are the fundamental technical and economic limitations of current cell disruption methods that prevent their effective implementation in mild microalgae biorefineries, and what evaluation framework is needed to assess alternative approaches? 

2. Can cultivation strategy enhance the efficiency and selectivity of mechanical cell disruption methods, and does this address the fundamental limitations? 

3. How can cell disruption efficiency be rapidly and accurately quantified ? 

4. Can a novel continuous explosive decompression system address the fundamental limitations, incorporate the optimization insights, and be developed using the analytical methods established to create a mild, energy-efficient, scalable cell disruption solution?