###### Abstract  
The application of pulsed electric fields (PEF) is an innovative extraction technology promoting cell membrane electroporation, thus allowing for an efficient recovery, from an energy point of view, of antioxidant compounds (chlorophylls, carotenoids, total phenolic compounds, etc.) from microalgae. Due to its selectivity and high extraction yield, the effects of PEF pre-treatment (3 kV/cm, 100 kJ/kg) combined with supplementary extraction at different times (5-180 min) and with different solvents (ethanol (EOH)/H\({}_{2}\)O, 50:50, \(v/v\); dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/H\({}_{2}\)O, 50:50, \(v/v\)) were evaluated in order to obtain the optimal conditions for the extraction of different antioxidant compounds and pigments. In addition, the results obtained were compared with those of a conventional treatment (without PEF pre-treatment but with constant shaking). After carrying out the different experiments, the best extraction conditions to recover the different compounds were obtained after applying PEF pre-treatment combined with the binary mixture EtOH/H\({}_{2}\)O, 50:50, \(v/v\), for 60-120 min. PEF extraction was more efficient throughout the study, especially at short extraction times (5-15 min). In this sense, recovery of 55-60%, 85-90%, and 60-70% was obtained for chlorophylls, carotenoids, and total phenolic compounds, respectively, compared to the maximum total extracted amount. These results show that PEF improves the extraction yield of antioxidant bioactive compounds from microalgae and is a promising technology due to its profitability and environmental sustainability. p 2021 17 August 2021 19 August Conventional extraction of antioxidant bioactive compounds from microalgae is often carried out using solvents and using dry biomass [9]. However, this conventional extraction method is very slow, involves the extraction of unwanted compounds, and can promote the degradation of some thermolabile compounds. Therefore, there is a need for innovative approaches such as pulsed electric fields (PEF) that affect the quality of the extracted compounds to a lesser extent and can be applied in a continuous flow to obtain higher extraction efficiency rates, minimize the use of solvents, and thus be a more efficient and sustainable extraction alternative [10; 11]. In recent years, several studies have applied PEF technology on microalgae for extraction purposes [12; 13; 14; 15]. This non-thermal technique consists of applying high-voltage electrical pulses between two electrodes in the treatment chamber [16]. Short electric pulses (1-100 \(\upmu\)s) at field intensities of 0.1-1 kV cm\({}^{-1}\) are employed for reversible permeabilization in plant cells for stress induction, at 0.5-3 kV cm\({}^{-1}\) for irreversible permeabilization of plant and animal tissues, and at 15-40 kV cm\({}^{-1}\) for irreversible permeabilization of microbial cells. The external electric field increases the transmembrane potential and promotes membrane pore formation of the biological cell. High-intensity electric pulses can be generated by the switched discharge of a suitable capacitor bank. The properties of the discharge circuit determine the shape of the time-dependent potential at the treatment chamber. Parallel plate electrodes or colinear type treatment chambers constitute the most commonly used circuits [17]. The PEF technique can be effectively applied in many food processing applications such as microorganism/enzyme inactivation, recovery of bioactive compounds, drying and freezing processes, and to promote the enhancement of some selected properties of food macromolecules and some chemical reactions [16]. It has several advantages compared to conventional techniques as it favours the extraction of bioactive compounds by generating reversible or irreversible micropores in the plasma membrane of the cells, promoting the migration of interesting compounds into the cytoplasm through the membrane with high selectivity/purity, no thermal effect, and short extraction times [18].