Patent ID: 8273248

Claim:
A method of separating neutral lipids from intact algal cells, comprising: providing a wet algal biomass comprising intact algal cells which comprise proteins, polar lipids and neutral lipids; dewatering the wet algal biomass by removing extracellular water to increase the solid content of the wet algal biomass to between 5% and 50% to generate a partially dewatered wet algal biomass; mixing the partially dewatered wet algal biomass with a first amphipathic solvent set and a first hydrophobic solvent set to generate a first extraction mixture comprising a first heavier phase and a first lighter phase, wherein the first heavier phase comprises the first amphipathic solvent set, neutral lipids, proteins, and partially dewatered wet algal biomass and the first lighter phase comprises the first hydrophobic solvent set and the polar lipids; separating the first lighter phase of the extraction mixture from the first heavier phase of the extraction mixture; separating the partially dewatered wet algal biomass from the first amphipathic solvent set in the first heavier phase of the extraction mixture to generate a separated partially dewatered wet algal biomass comprising neutral lipids; and a protein mixture comprising proteins, water and the first amphipathic solvent set; mixing the separated partially dewatered algal biomass with a second amphipathic solvent set and a second hydrophobic solvent set to generate a second extraction mixture comprising a second heavier phase and a second lighter phase, wherein the second heavier phase comprises the second amphipathic solvent set and separated partially dewatered wet algal biomass and the second lighter phase comprises the second hydrophobic solvent set and the neutral lipids; separating the second heavier phase from the second lighter phase; and separating the neutral lipids from the second lighter phase.