Patent ID: 8715956

Claim:
A method of extracting cellular compounds from a photosynthetic microorganism, which comprises: a step of culturing said photosynthetic microorganism in a photobioreactor to produce cellular compounds; an extraction step of said cellular compounds from said photosynthetic microorganism, wherein said culture and extraction steps are carried out in a continuous and parallel manner, said extraction step being carried out in an extraction vessel separately from said culture step, and wherein said extraction step is carried out by centrifugal partition chromatography, under conditions of biocompatibility with said photosynthetic micro-organism, using an apolar solvent comprising at least one of decane or dodecane, said solvent being maintained in said extraction vessel, and said extraction step being followed by: at least one step of recovering said cellular compounds; and at least one step of recirculating said photosynthetic micro-organism towards said photobioreactor.