Efficient lipid recovery is a major barrier to economical production of algal biofuels. The use of non-polar solvents is promising, as they can be recovered via centrifugation, avoiding energy-intensive evaporation of the water phase. Emulsions are central to this process. However, there is currently little understanding of the emulsion properties and how they relate to extraction and separation. This thesis investigated the fundamental physical mechanisms underlying the formation and subsequent destablisation of these emulsions in a hexane-based lipid extraction process.