OriginOil has developed an improved process for recovering oil from mixtures.    

Ian Gilson, CFA

The usual method for extracting oils from oil/water mixtures is to use an immiscible solvent such as hexane which is oil soluble and non-polar. However, some oil remains with the water especially if the oil has organic acid or hydroxyl groups. OriginOil has identified a naturally occurring product that has both polar and non-polar characteristics. In the case of  bio-oil from algae it also enhances the extraction of oil from the biomass by as much as 15%. The use of this algal metabolite could be incorporated into OriginOil’s Single Step Extraction (ESS) system without any problems.

Crude oil is often found together with water. Also steam flooding and using water to increase the pressure in an oil field are common techniques that involve the recovery billions of gallons of oil. The use of alginates in enhanced oil recovery is well known so another algae product should be accepted without too many problems.

The separation of the oil from the water could be a major source of licensing revenue for OriginOil (OOIL).
 

To view our most recent research reports and subscribe to our daily morning email alert, visit http://scr.zacks.com/. Please email scr@zacks.com with OOIL as the subject to request a copy of the full research report.

Follow Zacks Small Cap Research on Twitter at Twitter.com/ZacksSmallCap

 

 
Zacks Investment Research