Method of reducing emulsion by broth washing
AssigneesDsm IP Assets B.V., Evonik Operations GmbH
InventorsNegash Adugna, Martin Heining, Michael Benjamin Johnson, Neil Francis Leininger, Kirt Lyvell Matthews, Sr., Ginger Marie Shank, Nasrin Tabayehnejad, Vinod Tarwade
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein are processes for reducing or eliminating emulsion during the process of obtaining a microbial oil comprising one or more polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) from one or more microbial cells by washing the fermentation broth with at least 1× amount of water. Further disclosed herein is microbial oil comprising one or more PUFAs that is recovered from microbial cells by at least one process described herein.
Claims11
A solvent-free process for obtaining a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) oil from microbial cells in a fermentation broth, wherein the process comprises:
- (a) providing an unpasteurized fermentation broth comprising a biomass of PUFA oil-containing microbial cells;
- (b) washing the biomass by diluting the unpasteurized fermentation broth with at least 2× amount of water sufficient to substantially remove components from the fermentation broth that cause emulsion formation during cell lysing and thereby form a washed fermentation broth comprising PUFA oil-containing microbial cells;
- (c) separating the PUFA oil-containing microbial cells from supernatant liquid in the washed fermentation broth;
- (d) pasteurizing the PUFA oil-containing microbial cells separated from the supernatant liquid of the washed fermentation broth to provide pasteurized PUFA oil-containing microbial cells;
- (e) lysing the pasteurized PUFA oil-containing microbial cells to thereby form a lysed microbial cell composition;
- (f) demulsifying the lysed microbial cell composition to form a demulsified lysed microbial cell composition comprising PUFA oil;
- (g) separating the PUFA oil from the demulsified lysed microbial cell composition;
- and
- (h) recovering the PUFA oil.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.