Multistage wet lipid extraction from fresh water stressed Neochloris oleoabundans slurry – Experiments and modelling

Algae are considered an important renewable feedstock for lipid extraction to produce biofuels. Algae strain Neochloris oleoabundans used in this research can yield a high lipid content under stressed conditions. N-ethyl butylamine (EBA) as a switchable solvent has previously shown outstanding performance on energy efficient lipid extraction from non-broken wet algae slurry. In this work, a model was developed that describes the equilibrium state of lipid extraction from fresh water (FW)-stressed Neochloris oleoabundans algae slurry using EBA as solvent. When assuming that the cell interior is almost completely filled with the solvent phase during extraction, the model estimated extraction yields showed good agreement with those obtained in experiments. The developed model can predict the amount of crude lipid being recovered from any stage of a multistage extraction process.