@phdthesis{Zocher2019,
  author    = {Maria Katja Zocher},
  title     = {Extraction of bioactive primary and secondary Metabolites from Microalgae by atmospheric pressure Plasmas and pulsed Discharges in Water},
  journal    = {Extraktion bioaktiver prim{\"a}rer und sekund{\"a}rer Metabolite aus Mikroalgen mithilfe von Atmosph{\"a}rendruckplasmen und gepulsten Entladungen in Wasser},
  url       = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:9-opus-34358},
  pages     = {116},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {Microalgae are aquatic, unicellular, eukaryotic organisms, which perform photosynthesis. They have gained interest within the last decades not only for biofuel production due to their high amount of lipids, but also for pharmaceutical and for nutraceutical purposes. Interesting compounds are proteins, carbohydrates, or pigments, such as carotenoids. However, microalgae possess strong and rigid cell walls, which hinder a sufficient and yet, gentle extraction of those valuable compounds. Although standard extraction techniques are available, several shortcomings occur, e.g. high energy demand, use of environmentally harmful solvents or alteration of compounds due to heat or chemicals. Therefore, an alternative method is needed, which is able to address these disadvantages. Physical plasmas were thus studied to answer the question whether they are able to disintegrate the cell walls of microalgae effectively and yet, without degradation of the extractives. First step of the thesis was to find a suitable plasma source that has an effect on the cell walls because plasma effects, such as electric fields, shockwaves, UV light emission, and the generation of reactive species can be tailored with the respective setup. It was found that spark discharges are most effective for the extraction of Chlorella vulgaris, which was chosen as model organism. All extraction yields were compared to reference methods, whereat microwave radiation was found to be the most effective reference method and were hence, applied for comparative studies. For the next step, proteins were selected as targets to answer the question, which differences can be determined between plasms-treated and microwave-radiated proteins are observable although the extraction yields were equal. Furthermore, plasma effects, especially the effects of reactive species on the extracted proteins had to be studied. Findings indicate that heat sensitive proteins, such as photosystem-related proteins, or histones are better extractable with spark discharges than with microwave exposure and the effect of reactive species is only minor. The last step was to determine, which plasma effect is responsible for the observed cell wall disintegration. Therefore, the tensile strength of Chlorella vulgaris was determined and compared to the shockwave pressure, which is generated from the spark channel. It was proven that the shockwave pressure exceeds by far the tensile strength of the microalgae an can be thus held responsible for mechanism for cell wall rupture. In this thesis, it was found that spark discharges are a promising alternative for the extraction of valuable compounds from microalgae. The discharges are not only effective, but also gentle enough for sensitive compounds, such as proteins or pigments.},
  language  = {en}
}