(579g) Conversion of Biomass to Microbial Lipids for Biofuels

Microbial lipids, especially produced by oleaginous yeasts, consist mainly of triacylglycerols with fatty acid compositional profiles similar to those of commercial vegetable oils. Thus, microbial lipids are potential renewable resources for biofuels and oleochemicals. Over the years, we have been working on many aspects of microbial lipid technology in order to advance this area and reduce production costs. Specifically, different types of integrated processes were devised to explore low-value feedstock, such as raw glycerol, biomass hydrolysates, corn stalk, and cellular wastes of fermentation industry. In terms of lignocellulosic biomass, both cellulose and hemicellulose were converted into lipids. Processes were established to recover lipid and even make fatty acid esters directly from the culture broth without the isolation of “fatty” cells. Together, our efforts have been considerably advancing yeast lipid technology and should provide intriguing insights for biorefinery in general. We believe that yeast lipids will be further developed in near future for sustainable biodiesel production.

 Representative references

1. Hu C, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2009, 100, 4843–4847.
2. Wu S, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2010, 101, 6124–6129.
3. Hu C, et al. Biotechnol. Biofuels 2011, 4, 25.
4. Wu S, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2011, 102, 1803–1807.
5. Xie H, et al. Green Chem. 2012, 14, 1202–1210.
6. Jin G, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2012, 111, 378–382.
7. Gong Z, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2012, 117, 20–24.
8. Gong Z, et al. Biotechnol. Biofuels 2013, 6, 36.
9. Huang Q, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2013, 130, 339–344.
10. Jin G, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2013, 150, 266–270.
11. Gong Z, et al. Biotechnol. Biofuels 2014, 7, 13.
12. Gong Z, et al. Biotechnol. Biofuels 2014, 7, 158.
13. Yang X, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2015, 193, 557–562.
14. Gong Z, et al. Biotechnol. Biofuels 2015, 8, 189.
15. Yang X, et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2015, 175, 91–96.
16. Wang Y, et al. Process Biochem. 2015, 50, 1097–1102.
17. Gong Z et al. Bioresour. Technol. 2016, 207, 102–108.
18. Zhang X, et al. RSC Adv. 2016, 6, 26752–26756.