Evaluation of Various Extraction Techniques for Efficient Lipid Recovery from Thermo-Resistant Microalgae, Hindakia, Scenedesmus and Micractinium Species —Comparison of Lipid Extraction Methods from Microalgae

In recent years, photosynthetic microalgae regained attention for biodiesel production. For efficient utilization of microalgae, a number of criteria including a strain with high biomass and lipid productivities and employment of effective and reliable methods for oil extraction from the obtained biomass should be met. Recently, we have isolated and identified three thermo-resistant green microalgae strains, namely; Scenedesmus sp. ME02, Hindakia tetrachotoma ME03 and Micractinium sp. ME05. In this study, we compared percent lipid content of thermos-tolerant microalgal strains using the following solvent extraction methods: Soxhlet, Bligh and Dyer and Folch methods with or without assisted cell disruption techniques including lyophilization, homogenization, ultrasonication, bead and microwave-assisted. The highest increase in lipid yield was obtained with a combination of lyophilization and ultrasonication techniques together with Soxhlet method: 27% of total dry weight for Micractinium sp. ME05. We conclude that lyophilization and ultrasonication are effective assistance methods for lipid extraction from thermo-resistant microalgae. Corresponding author.