Extraction of saponifiable lipids from wet microalgal biomass for biodiesel production

Saponifiable lipids (SLs) were extracted with hexane from wet biomass (86 wt% water) of the microalga Nannochloropsis gaditana in order to transform them into fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs, biodiesel). The influence of homogenization pressure on SL extraction yield at low temperature (20–22 °C) was studied. Homogenization at 1700 bar tripled the SL extraction yield. Two biomass batches with similar total lipid content but different lipidic compositions were used. Batch 1 contained fewer SLs (12.0 wt%) and neutral saponifiable lipids (NSLs, 7.9 wt%) than batch 2 (21.6 and 17.2 wt%, respectively). For this reason, and due to the selectivity of hexane toward NSLs, high SL yield (69.1 wt%) and purity (71.0 wt%) were obtained from batch 2. Moreover, this extract contains a small percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids (16.9 wt%), thereby improving the biodiesel quality. Finally, up to 97.0% of extracted SLs were transformed to FAMEs by acid catalyzed transesterification.