US Patent 8088614 - Production and purification of biofuel from plants and microalgae

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8088614.html

This patent from Aurora Algae teaches a way to use carbon-based nanomaterials to extract oil from biomaterial. Claim 1 reads:

1. A process for recovering an oil product from an organism, comprising:

(a) obtaining a crude extract from an organismal biomass;

(b) applying said crude extract to a composition comprising a nanomaterial; and

(c) recovering said oil product from said composition comprising the nanomaterial.