Patent ID: 9453181
Filing Date: 2016-09-27
CPC Classification: C11B

Claim Text:
1. A method for removing contaminants from algal oil, the method comprising the steps of: extracting a contaminant-containing algal oil from algae cells to form a crude algal oil that comprises the contaminant-containing algal oil and that is substantially free of the algae cells; combining a sulfuric acid-aqueous solution that has a pH of about 1 or less with the crude algal oil at treatment conditions that include a temperature of from about 4 to about 25° C. and at a predetermined acid to oil ratio of from about 1:4 to about 4:1, wherein the predetermined acid to oil ratio is defined by a first weight of the sulfuric acid-aqueous solution to a second weight of the contaminant-containing algal oil to form an effluent that comprises a treated algal oil phase and contaminants in an acidic aqueous phase, wherein the contaminants comprise metals, phosphorus, or combinations thereof; removing the acidic aqueous phase from the effluent to form a contaminant-depleted algal oil containing about 10 wt. % or less of the contaminants that were originally present in the contaminant-containing algal oil.