Disruption of algae cells using DYNO®-MILL bead mills has been successful in numerous facilities. Models for small laboratory work can handle from 1.0ml samples to 5 gallons per hour. For scaled up production amounts, the larger units can process from 1,000 liters per hour and more.

High percent of cell disruption often allows for one pass processing. This keeps equipment and operating costs to a minimum. The degree of cell damage can be controlled. This allows for selection of gentle “nick” to release organelle to a violent breakage to release membrane bound proteins.

Testing is critical since different strains of cells and the conditions under which they are cultured can affect the durability of cell walls and membranes. Operating parameters that can be tailored to a particular project include grinding media (bead) size and density, the degree of agitation, the flow rate of suspension, solids loading of cells, and other factors.

The University of Texas at Austin is conducting a multidisciplinary research and development program directed toward extraction of triglycerides from algae for the production of transportation fuels. The triglyceride extraction is widely recognized as a key impediment to the commercialization of this biofuel. Current extraction technologies are too expensive to be competitive.

SRS has established new techniques for fractionation of algae, providing for the highest recovery of lipids for biofuel production. SRS leverages the implementation and operation of systems at over 2000 client sites to provide the algae biofuels industry with the patent pending SRS Algafrac™ technology for a commercially scalable process which extracts lipids