Chlorophyll interference in microalgal lipid quantification through the Bligh and Dyer method

The screening for high lipid producing microalgae is a crucial step to enable large scale cultivation of suitable microalgae as a means of alternative energy. The Bligh and Dyer method has been traditionally used for the determination of biofuel-related lipids. But, we found that this method also extracts chlorophyll, to result in significant over-estimation of biofuel-related lipid measures. In this work, we present and characterize a method to obviate the chlorophyll interference to biofuel-related lipid determination.

► In algae, chlorophyll significantly contaminates biofuel-related lipid extracts.
► Chlorophyll contamination results in overestimation of biofuel-related lipids.
► An improvement to the Bligh and Dyer method was developed and characterized.
► DMSO was used to remove chlorophyll interference.
► DMSO does not affect biofuel-related lipid content.