Abstract
In recent years, oil derived from microalgae has been considered as one of the most promising sources of high value added products and biofuels. The marine microalgae Crypthecodinium cohnii has the capacity to produce significant amounts of lipids, about 20% to 50% of its cellular dry weight, with a high proportion of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is a ?-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) with globally recognized benefits in human health. However, most of the recent published studies on this matter only valorize C. cohnii PUFA fraction, neglecting the remaining microalgal lipid fraction, after DHA removal. This research explored the overall C. cohni lipid fractionation, to obtain a PUFA rich fraction (namely DHA) that can be used in pharmaceutical/nutraceutical/food purposes, and another lipid fraction, rich in saturated/monounsaturated fatty acids, which can be used for biodiesel purposes. In this way, all the microalgal lipid fractions can be used and valorized. C. cohnii lipid fractionating was carried out using urea complexes, at different temperatures. The best temperature that led to the highest DHA proportion in the noncrystallized phase was -30 °C, attaining 79.67 % w/w total fatty acids (TFA). The remaining lipid fraction was characterized and evaluated for biodiesel purpose. The results obtained in this research contributed to a better valorization of all C. cohnii lipid fractions, being possible to apply this approach to other microalgal oils.
