Process for producing microalgae oil and valuable products from wet microalgae biomass
AssigneeNational Key Laboratory For Petrochemical and Refinery Technologies
InventorThu Ha Thi Vu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A process of producing microalgae oil from wet microalgae biomass includes steps of: bead milling to preliminarily break cell walls; ultrasonic treatment and mixing in a device equipped with ultrasonic emitters to physically disrupt cell walls, combined with enzymatic autolysis by endogenous enzymes; followed by primary and secondary centrifugation to extract oil and valuable compounds; then centrifuging in a conical centrifuge to obtain microalgae oil and a water phase containing valuable water-soluble compounds, and finally concentrating this water phase to yield valuable water-soluble products.
Claims9
A process of producing microalgae oil and valuable products from wet microalgae biomass, comprising following steps:
- Step 1:
- load wet microalgae biomass into a bead mill and perform preliminary milling of the wet microalgae biomass;
- Step 2:
- treat the biomass to activate intracellular enzymes to break down cell walls and microalgae cells, transfer the pre-ground biomass from Step 1 into a mixing device equipped with ultrasonic emitters in an inert gas environment, perform a first ultrasonic treatment until the biomass reaches a temperature ranging from 30° C. to 55° C., stop the ultrasound and maintain the biomass at a stable temperature, mixing it for a sufficient time to allow intrinsic enzymes to break down the cell walls, thereby facilitating the release of oil from the cells, then, stop mixing and perform a second ultrasonic treatment under the same conditions to enhance cell wall disruption and increase oil extraction efficiency;
- Step 3:
- perform primary centrifugation on the treated biomass from Step 2 to separate liquid phase, which contains most of crude oil (still mixed with water) and water-soluble valuable compounds, from biomass residue, the separated liquid is referred to as primary crude oil, and the remaining paste is referred to as primary paste;
- Step 4:
- centrifuge the primary crude oil obtained in Step 3 using a conical centrifuge to separate oil phase from water phase, the water phase (also known as the primary liquid) contains water and water-soluble valuable compounds, while the oil phase contains microalgae oil;
- Step 5:
- transfer the primary paste from Step 3 and the primary liquid from Step 4 back to the mixing device with ultrasonic emitters for ultrasonic treatment of the mixture (primary paste and primary liquid) in an inert gas environment;
- Step 6:
- perform secondary centrifugation on the ultrasonically treated mixture from Step 5 to separate the oil phase (still mixed with water) from the paste, the obtained oil (still containing water) is called secondary crude oil, and the remaining paste is called secondary paste;
- Step 7:
- centrifuge the secondary crude oil obtained from Step 6 in a conical centrifuge to separate oil from the water phase, yielding microalgae oil and water containing valuable water-soluble compounds, referred to as secondary liquid;
- and
- Step 8:
- perform vacuum filtration on the secondary paste obtained from Step 6 to extract a liquid, referred to as vacuum liquid, and collect microalgae residue, then, mix the vacuum liquid with the secondary liquid obtained in Step 7 and concentrate it under vacuum to obtain a concentrated liquid product containing valuable components.
A process of disrupting cell walls and cells of wet microalgae biomass, comprising preliminary bead milling of biomass to initially break cell membranes, followed by a first ultrasonic treatment until the biomass reaches a temperature ranging from 30° C. to 55° C.;
- then mixing the ultrasonicated biomass to activate intracellular enzymes;
- and finally performing a second ultrasonic treatment for 2 to 8 minutes to break remaining cell walls, thereby enhancing oil recovery in subsequent steps.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.