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Electroporation in the Environment: Biorefinery & Biomass

Electroporation in the Environment: Biorefinery & Biomass

The environment encompasses the natural and built surroundings in which living organisms exist and interact. These systems are increasingly affected by human activities through pollution, resource depletion and climate change, thereby altering ecosystems, water availability and biodiversity. Environmental protection therefore requires approaches that simultaneously reduce pollution, conserve resources and minimise greenhouse-gas emissions. In this context, pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment, based on the phenomenon of electroporation, has developed from a mainly laboratory-scale cell treatment method into a versatile technology with applications ranging from water treatment to efficient biomass fractionation.

One early environmental application of PEF was the treatment of hospital wastewater containing pathogenic and antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may enter the aquatic environment if insufficiently removed. Studies demonstrated that PEF treatment can achieve substantial bacterial inactivation without increasing the genotoxicity of the treated wastewater, providing a non-chemical alternative for water disinfection [1]. More recently, PEF has been investigated for controlling microbial contamination in electrophoretic coating (E-coating) systems. Recirculating process water and lower-temperature, water-based paints can support microbial growth, affecting coating quality and requiring chemical biocides or process refurbishment. PEF offers the possibility of maintaining microbial contamination at a controlled steady-state level, thereby reducing dependence on biocides and potentially decreasing water consumption and process losses [2, 3].

A second major environmental opportunity arises from the use of PEF for biomass valorisation. Microalgae are attractive renewable resources because they can produce proteins, carbohydrates and lipids and can be cultivated without necessarily competing with agricultural land used for food production. Their cultivation can further be integrated with nutrient-rich waste streams such as anaerobic digestate, linking biomass production with nutrient recovery and the circular economy. However, efficient downstream processing remains a major challenge.

In contrast to mechanical disruption by high-pressure homogenisation (HPH), which can extensively fragment cells and generate complex mixtures of cell debris, PEF can permeabilise cells while preserving the macroscopic biomass structure and its separability. This property enables cascade biorefinery concepts in which different cellular fractions can be recovered sequentially [4-7].

Following PEF treatment, water-soluble proteins, accounting for up to 50% of the cellular protein fraction, and carbohydrates can first be recovered from the aqueous phase, while the residual biomass can subsequently undergo lipid extraction using organic solvents [8-11]. Recent work has demonstrated that post-PEF incubation enhances lipid release and can substantially reduce solvent consumption. A biphasic extraction approach reduced the solvent requirement from 75.6 to 37 mL g⁻¹ dry biomass while recovering up to 69% of the total lipids. Other studies have demonstrated lipid recoveries above 60% from wet PEF-treated biomass using immiscible solvents [12, 13].

Thus, electroporation is more than an alternative cell-disruption method. By enabling wet processing, sequential fractionation and cascade recovery, PEF can reduce the energy and material requirements of biomass processing while supporting the production of several valuable products from a single renewable feedstock. Its integration into circular biorefineries therefore represents a promising pathway towards resource-efficient processing and, where it replaces more energy- or material-intensive technologies, can contribute to reducing the environmental and climate impacts of biomass utilisation.

— Contributed by Christian Gusbeth

References

  1. Gusbeth, C., Frey, W., Volkmann, H., Schwartz, T. & Bluhm, H. (2009). Pulsed electric field treatment for bacteria reduction and its impact on hospital wastewater. Chemosphere, 75, 228–233. DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2008.11.066.
  2. Gusbeth, C., Krolla, P., Bruchmann, J., Schwartz, T., Müller, G. & Frey, W. (2024). Bacterial decontamination of process liquids and paints in E-coating lines by pulsed electric field treatment. Journal of Coatings Technology and Research, 21, 1385–1398.
  3. Gusbeth, C., Müller, G. & Frey, W. (2026). Controlling electrode fouling in pulsed electric field (PEF)-based disinfection of spoiled E-coating paints. Journal of Coatings Technology and Research. DOI: 10.1007/s11998-026-01304-x.
  4. Goettel, M., Eing, C., Gusbeth, C., Straessner, R., & Frey, W. (2013). Pulsed electric field assisted extraction of intracellular valuables from microalgae. Algal Research, 2(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2013.07.004
  5. Golberg, A., Sack, M., Teissie, J., Pataro, G., Pliquett, U., Saulis, G., Stefan, T., Miklavcic, D., Vorobiev, E., & Frey, W. (2016). Energy-efficient biomass processing with pulsed electric fields for bioeconomy and sustainable development Introduction to biorefineries for sustainable development and the need for new technologies. Biotechnol Biofuels, 9, 94. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-016-0508-z
  6. Grimi, N., Dubois, A., Marchal, L., Jubeau, S., Lebovka, N. I., & Vorobiev, E. (2014). Selective extraction from microalgae Nannochloropsis sp. using different methods of cell disruption. Bioresource Technology, 153, 254–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.BIORTECH.2013.12.011
  7. Pataro, G., Goettel, M., Straessner, R., Gusbeth, C., Ferrari, G., & Frey, W. (2017). Effect of PEF treatment on extraction of valuable compounds from microalgae C. Vulgaris. In Chemical Engineering Transactions (Vol. 57). https://doi.org/10.3303/CET1757012
  8. Coustets, M., Joubert-Durigneux, V., Hérault, J., Schoefs, B., Blanckaert, V., Garnier, J. P., & Teissié, J. (2015). Optimization of protein electroextraction from microalgae by a flow process. Bioelectrochemistry, 103, 74–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.BIOELECHEM.2014.08.022
  9. Scherer, D., Krust, D., Frey, W., Mueller, G., Nick, P., Gusbeth, C. (2019). Pulsed electric field (PEF)-assisted protein recovery from Chlorella vulgaris is mediated by an enzymatic process after cell death, Algal Research, Volume 41,101536, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2019.101536.
  10. Gusbeth, C.A., Frey, W. (2022). Integration of Pulsed Electric Fields in the Biorefinery Concept to Extract Microalgae Components of Interest for Food Industry. In: Raso, J., Heinz, V., Alvarez, I., Toepfl, S. (eds) Pulsed Electric Fields Technology for the Food Industry. Food Engineering Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70586-2_12
  11. Gusbeth, C. (2025). Applications of pulsed electric field treatment in downstream processing of microalgae biomass. In: Algal Bioreactors, pp. 165–180. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-443-14059-4.00014-3.
  12. Papachristou, I., Nazarova, N., Wüstner, R., Lina, R., Frey, W. & Silve, A. (2025). Biphasic lipid extraction from microalgae after PEF-treatment reduces the energy demand of the downstream process. Biotechnology for Biofuels and Bioproducts, 18, 12. DOI: 10.1186/s13068-025-02608-7.
  13. Silve, A., Nazarova, N., Wüstner, R., Straessner, R., Delso, C. & Frey, W. (2024). Excess of Water Enables Efficient Lipid Extraction from Wet Pulsed-Electric Field-Treated A. protothecoides Microalgae Using Immiscible Solvents. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 12, 7683–7692. DOI:10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c06966.

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