Mike wrote:My friends and I are doing a science fair project on algae biofuels. But first we want to purchase a species of algae online. Could you suggest the best possible species, that produces a good amount of oil, and can reproduce quickly
By far Botyrococcus braunii is known to have high oil content (40 - 50 %) but it grows slowly. Other strains such as
Scenedesmus dimorphus, Neochloris oleoabundans can grow quickly with considerable amount of oil in it (20 - 30%).
Mike wrote:we can only extract using the chemical solvent method, since we have no access to a oil press. Also I want to know if it possible to use a centrifuge to extract the oil after dying up the and blending (using a blended) algae.
For extracting oil from algae, you can go for Hexane solvent extraction method. Centrifuge is only used to separate algae from water. In extraction,there are two phases involved: breaking algal cell wall and separating oil out. Centrifugation can only be used for the later ie., to separate the oil out. Centrifugation can be done only after breaking the cell wall by either Osmotic shock, ultrasonication or similar methods.
Hope this helps.