how to extract protein from spirulina?!
Question: How to extract protein from spirulina?
Answers:
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I shudder to think of how much that protein supplement would cost.
Assuming you're starting from the fresh algae, you could rip apart the cells (grinding, crushing, or whatever method you'd like to) and centrifuge the contents... proteins tend to be more dense than most of the other nutrients (fats, vitamins, and whatnot) in the cells if I'm not mistaken. I did some research online and it seems that there are machines that have been made to break apart the nutrients from algae like this, but they are very specialized machines and I'm not sure if you're able to buy a machine for your project (or what options you have available).
Also, if you're doing this for a class, I can only imagine some indication of processing the algae would have been covered in class or in your text... I would ask your professor if you really aren't sure about which road you should go down on this. Good luck and I hope I helped!
Personal experience in science classes and personal research in my role as a Product Specialist for a vitamin company (we carry various algae products and they have different listings of how they are processed)
search algal downstream processing methods
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