C11204: An Economically and Environmentally-sound Process for Enhanced Extraction and Purification of Oils from Wet Microalgal Biomass Using High Pressure CO2 as a SoluteValue Proposition:
• Addresses a major need in new methods for efficient biofuel production.
• Fundamentally different from conventional supercritical CO2 extraction.
• Does not use toxic chemicals or expensive mechanical equipment.
• Substantial algal biofuel cost reduction.
Technical Details:
The algal biofuels industry represents an exciting opportunity to take advantage of the ability of microalgae to convert carbon dioxide and sunlight to liquid fuels. Algae offer the ability to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by coal fired power plants, ethanol plants, petroleum refineries, and a number of other man-made and natural processes. New and effective methods for extracting oils from microalgae are an important area of research and development to make algae as economically viable feedstock for lipid production. In particular, current technologies used for oil extraction require toxic organic solvents as well as expensive centrifuge steps representing nearly half of the total capital costs excluding systems to separate the lipid fraction from water and algal biomass. As such, the costs of the lipid purification currently represent the single most significant cost and technological barrier to algal biofuels commercialization. This technology provides a novel application of readily available CO2 as a solute to overcome these cost and obstacles to lipid purification.
Looking for Partners:
• Improved oil extraction method from wet microalgal biomass at large and small scale using carbon dioxide as solute.
• For potential production of nutraceutical oils including omega-3-fatty acids, DHA.
• Biofuel metabolites including lipids (triacylglycerides, TAG), isoprenoids, butanol derivatives, and other hydrocarbons.
