Extraction of lipids from microalgae using monophasic-biphasic separation via hexane-acetone-water system

摘要

Effective extraction of lipids from aqueous algae is challenging due to miscibility issues of lipophilic extraction solvents like hexane with the aqueous media. However, we observed that a polar aprotic solvent such as acetone can make the original biphasic system monophasic, thus permitting higher extraction yields. The attractiveness of such a system is the ability to modulate phase stability by changing solvent concentrations so that the lipid-rich phase can eventually be easily separated. In this paper, a solvent system containing hexane and acetone is presented as an alternative to the common Bligh and Dyer extraction system.