TITLE:
Sustainable Production of Microbial Lipids from Lignocellulosic Biomass Using Oleaginous Yeast Cultures
AUTHORS:
Jung-Eun Lee, Praveen V. Vadlani, Doohong Min
KEYWORDS:
Trichosporon oleaginosus, Lipomyces starkeyi, Cryptococcus albidus, Lignocellulosic Hydrolysates, Sorghum Stalks, Switchgrass
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems,
Vol.7 No.1,
March
24,
2017
ABSTRACT: Microbial lipids derived from oleaginous yeast could be a promising resource for biodiesel and other oleochemical materials. The objective of this study was to develop an efficient bioconversion process from lignocellulosic biomass to microbial lipids using three types of robust oleaginous yeast: T. oleaginosus, L. starkeyi, and C. albidus. Sorghum stalks and switchgrass were utilized as feed-stocks for lipid production. Among oleaginous yeast strains, T. oleaginous showed better performance for lipid production using sorghum stalk hydrolysates. Lipid titers of 13.1 g·L-1 were achieved by T. oleaginosus, using sorghum stalk hydrolysates with lipid content of 60% (wt·wt-1) and high lipid yield of 0.29 g·g-1, which was substantially higher than the value reported in literature. Assessment of overall lipid yield revealed a total of 14.3 g and 13.3 g lipids were produced by T. oleaginosus from 100 g of raw sorghum stalks and switchgrass, respectively. This study revealed that minimization of sugar loss during pretreatment and selection of appropriate yeast strains would be key factors to develop an efficient bioconversion process and improve the industrial feasibility in a lignocellulose-based biorefinery.