Microbial production of biodiesel and carotenoids using oleaginous red yeast Rhodotorula glutinis – Screening of industrial wastewaters as suitable feedstock
- Publication Type
- Contribution to conference
- Authors
- Schneider, T., Graeff-Hönninger, S., French, W.T., Hernandez R., Claupein, W., Merkt, N.
- Year of publication
- 2012
- Published in
- Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Protection,
- Editor
- A.G. Olabi & K.Y. Benyounis
- Page (from - to)
- 119-124
- Conference name
- 5th International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Protection
- Conference location
- Dublin
- Conference date
- 05. – 08.06.2012
Looking at the depletion of fossil oil resources, the production of biodiesel increased significantly in the past decade. Microbial lipids have been introduced as new feedstock for biodiesel production but due to economic restraints no approach has reached commercial realization yet. To overcome these issues, this study investigates the concomitant production of lipids and high-value carotenoids by the red yeast Rhodotorula glutinis grown on media derived from brewery wastewater. All treatments (T 1: Raw wastewater, T 2: Wastewater supplemented with glucose, T 3: Artificial sugar media) showed significant cell growth and carotenoid production. Lipid production was not observed, due to the availability of nitrogen throughout the cultivation time. Thus brewery wastewater could be a suitable fermentation substrate for R. glutinis. However, for a final evaluation the cultivation time should be extended to further observe the course of carbon and nitrogen consumption as well as lipid and carotenoid production.