Patent ID: 8241868

Claim:
A method for isolating one compound or more than one compound from a microbial biomass which contains microorganisms that have produced the compound or compounds, the method comprising the following steps: (a) preparing or obtaining wet cells having an average moisture content of between 30% and 80%; (b) subjecting the wet cells to primary drying to obtain primary dried cells having an average moisture content of between 5% and 50%, wherein the primary drying is accomplished with a conduction heating system of a thermal adhesion conveyor drier; (c) subjecting the primary dried cells obtained in (b) to secondary drying to obtain secondary dried cells having an average moisture content of no greater than 10%, wherein the secondary drying is accomplished with a convection heating system; and (d) extracting, isolating, purifying and/or refining the compound or each of the compounds from the secondary dried cells obtained in (c), wherein said compound or each of the compounds is a triglyceride and/or phospholipid comprising a polyunsaturated fatty acid as a constituent fatty acid.