Author(s)

Jung-Eun Lee^1*, Praveen V. Vadlani^1,2, Doohong Min³

¹Bioprocessing and Renewable Energy Laboratory, Grain Science and Industry, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA.
²Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA.
³Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA.

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.

Trichosporon oleaginosus, Lipomyces starkeyi, Cryptococcus albidus, Lignocellulosic Hydrolysates, Sorghum Stalks, Switchgrass

Lee, J. , Vadlani, P. and Min, D. (2017) Sustainable Production of Microbial Lipids from Lignocellulosic Biomass Using Oleaginous Yeast Cultures. Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems, 7, 36-50. doi: 10.4236/jsbs.2017.71004.