Algae oil is increasingly used as a sustainable source of important nutrients, including polyunsaturated fatty acids that support human health and development. One important example is arachidonic acid, or ARA, which is used in nutrition products such as infant formula and functional foods.
However, crude algae oil needs to be refined before it can be used in high-quality food and nutrition applications. Two key refining steps are usually required: degumming, which removes phospholipids, and deacidification, which removes free fatty acids. Conventional refining methods can require large amounts of water, chemicals, solvents or energy and may also reduce oil yield or affect valuable nutrients.
A new study by Zhonghui Liu, Yi Zhang, Tieliang Liu, Qi Zhou, Yandaizi Zhou, Kheng-Lim Goh, Siew-Young Quek, Fenghong Huang and Mingming Zheng reports a more efficient enzymatic approach for refining ARA-enriched algae oil.
Published in Engineering, the study developed an immobilized phospholipase, PLA1@MCM-41-C8, that can perform both degumming and deacidification. In other words, the same enzyme system can do two important refining jobs.
The method achieved a degumming rate of 95.9% while retaining up to 97.3% of ARA in the algae oil. The acidity of the degummed oil was reduced from 14.5 to 1.1 mg KOH g⁻¹. At the same time, the process produced 29.2% high-value diacylglycerol, a functional lipid of interest in food and nutrition applications.
Importantly, the enzymatic process had minimal effect on the oil’s antioxidant stability, fatty acid composition, oil content and flavor characteristics. Compared with conventional refining, this suggests a gentler route for processing nutrient-rich algae oil while preserving its useful components.
A simple potential application is the production of cleaner, higher-quality algae oil ingredients for nutrition products. For example, ARA-enriched algae oil is relevant to infant nutrition and other functional food formulations. A refining process that removes unwanted impurities while preserving ARA could help manufacturers improve product quality without relying heavily on harsher chemical refining steps.
The immobilized enzyme also showed improved thermostability, pH tolerance, solvent tolerance and reusability compared with free phospholipase A1. These features make the system promising for future industrial oil refining, especially where cost, stability and repeated use of enzymes are important.
More information
Zhonghui Liu et al, Two Birds with One Stone: Enzymatic Degumming and Deacidification for Arachidonic Acid-Enriched Algae Oil Using PLA1@MCM-41-C8, Engineering (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2025.11.030
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Newcastle University in Singapore
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Mild enzymatic method gently refines algae oil for nutrition products (2026, July 9)
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