Abstract
Various single solvents were tested to find the effective solvent for the extraction of algae oil from wet-form Chlorella minutissima. In the case of single solvents, their extractabilities for algae oil were increased with their polarity because the water in wet algae cell is to form a solvent shell around the lipids. Based on these results, the wet-form algae samples were treated with a polar alcohol solvent and then a nonpolar solvent was added in algae residue. In the algae oil extraction by ethanol/n-hexane, total lipid contents were 40-50% and composition of triglyceride in extracted oil was 46.50%. Considering solvent toxicity of conventional solvent mixture such as chloroform and methanol for algae oil extraction, the ethanol/n-hexane system was identified as the effective one for the oil extraction from wet-form Chlorella minutissima.