We are in the process of testing the Managed Ecosystem Fermentation technology on fresh algae and need to do an economic analysis comparing other methods to this technology.
Solvent based extraction system for lipids from wet algae is most common but very cumbersome. Specially leads to formation of emulsions which are difficult to break and recover the oil. Dry algae with solvent extraction works well, but the cost of drying, lipid loss and handling dry fluffy algae is a real challenge. Combination of solvents, ratio of algae biomass and solvent is also crucial. As per my understanding the real lipids in algae is between 5 to 10% (lot of literature available with more than 40 to 70% lipids, but i have doubts).
Shrikant,
Have you tried centrifuging the algae first, then applying the solvent mix?
the most widely used method for lipid extraction is Bligh & Dyer method using chloroform and methanol ratio as a solvent.
