Technological process for cell disruption, extraction and encapsulation of astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis

•Haematococcus pluvialis is one of the major natural sources of astaxanthin.•Astaxanthin is a powerful antioxidant that acts in the combat of free radicals.•The enzymatic lysis is promising for the recovery of astaxanthin from H. pluvialis.•The precipitation pressure had influence on the particle size formed.•SEDS encapsulation efficiency of 51.21% was achieved. In this work, the effectiveness of different enzymatic techniques for cell wall disruption of Haematococcus pluvialis for the extraction of carotenoids and subsequent encapsulation of extracts in the co-polymer poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) using the Solution Enhanced Dispersion by Supercritical fluids (SEDS) technique was investigated. Glucanex® performed best compared with Lyticase® and Driselase®. The conditions for enzymatic lysis using this enzyme preparation were established as a pH of 4.5, a temperature of 55°C, an initial activity of β-1,3-glucanase of 0.6UmL−1 and a reaction time of 30min. Enzymatic lysis assisted by ultrasound without biomass freezing was shown to be a promising and simple one-step technique for cell wall disruption, reaching 83.90% extractability. In the co-precipitation experiments, the highest encapsulation efficiency (51.21%) was obtained when using a higher biomass to dichloromethane ratio (10mgmL−1) at the carotenoid extraction step and a lower pressure of precipitation (80bar). In these conditions, spherical particles in the micrometer range (0.228μm) were obtained.