Thesis title: Process intensification and sustainability enhancement of vegetal waste and microbial biomass biorefining by novel extraction processes
In recent years, the development of biomass refining processes was an object of interest of researchers, in particular technological processes that exploit biomasses as raw materials for energy production, such as biofuels, bulk chemicals, polymers, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmetics. Among the most studied biomasses there are microalgae, bacteria, plants and agro-industrial by-products. Many studies were carried out on the extraction processes for the recovery of high value-added molecules. The difficulty of the fractionation of biomass extracts in separate streams rich in lipids, proteins, carbohydrates still represents a major drawback for possible industrial applications. Furthermore, a growing environmental concern and strict regulatory aspects for the waste disposal and industrial processes impact encourage the development of innovative and more sustainable extraction and separation methods. Despite the variety of studies dedicated to this topic, the heterogeneity of the bioactive compounds, and the complexity of biomass matrices keep researchers from drawing general conclusions. This study aimed to study the possibility of extracting bioactive compounds from microalgae, microbial and waste biomass from the wine industry by using natural solvents. Furthermore, the possibility of exploiting the characteristic of these solvents to reverse their hydrophobicity in order to isolate and purify the target compound was evaluated.