I know there was a previous post in this thread about finding an oil press for using expeller method. Does anyone have a press they are currently using to get the oil out or is this just something people believe. If someone had a link to something that worked, nice things to know would be size, cost, amount of materal that can be pressed at one time (and if you were currently using it for algae, how much oil you got from it and how you separated everything). Just a thought but I agree and using the hexane method may give you more oil for the same amount of lbs of algae, but the risk for your average joe is a bit more than I would like to tackle until I got my dad invovled (PHD in CE).
Scooby,
People believe it will work. There are no reports of successes or failures.
I don't like the bio engineering gig. It is much to easy to create a life form that can get out of hand - no matter how well engineered or intended. I think of Brazil and Africanized bees. No bio engineering. Find the right algae, the one, or ones, that made all that oil millions of years ago and go with that. Ethenol, fertilizer or dry boiler fuel, just like "cow patties", will keep all the dead cells well in check.
Here is a link to a low cost hand powered oil expeller.
http://www.piteba.com/eng/index_eng.htm