Conventional and advances approaches in algal downstream processes

Microalgae biomass is increasingly used as a food supplement due to its nutritional value and potential to generate various biomolecules. However, researchers are increasingly determined to improve downstream processing to obtain these metabolites derived from microalgae due to their bioactive properties. The downstream processes cover from the harvesting of biomass to the extraction of target biomolecules. In this way, nowadays, several methods implemented to recover wet biomass still require research to determine the best use. Therefore, the addition of pretreatments can also facilitate access to intracellular compounds but makes the subsequent process more costly. These challenges make it difficult to apply microalgae biocompounds in industrial applications, which directs scientific attention to overcome these bottlenecks and advance industrial levels. Given this, this chapter reviews the main downstream processes in microalgae production, including conventional harvesting methods, pretreatment, biomass drying methods, and primary extraction processes correlated with the biomolecule of interest in the process. Finally, the future perspectives of this processing are discussed to reduce the bottleneck imposed by its energy commitment.