Algal Oil Extraction

Algae can yield annually as much as 5,500 gallons of oil per acre, while soybeans and rapeseed yield approximately 200 gallons of oil per acre. The Company’s patent-pending application of its proprietary technology is effective at extracting oil from algae. The hydrodynamic cavitation processing has a very low residence time and does not require much solvent, lowering downstream processing costs and improving the environmental impact. The one-step biodiesel production can be carried out via subjecting the dried algae to advanced hydrodynamic nano cavitation in methanol in the presence of a suitable catalyst.

Responding to market demands for green technologies, CTi has created a patent-pending process and designed a flow-through portable unit that combines feedstock (e.g., animal fats and/or vegetable oils) with a catalyst and methanol and converts the mixture into crude biodiesel. Transesterification is carried out almost instantaneously due to the vigorous mixing and superior reaction conditions. The high-yield process is characterized with excellent reproducibility and low energy consumption. The unit capacity can be scaled up or down, depending on the production scale. Both small-scale and large-scale biodiesel producers may benefit from the implementation of this breakthrough approach.