Extractive production of microbial oil using hydrophobic adsorbents: A comparative study

Abstract

Abstract Increased demand for vegetable oils has accelerated interest in producing its renewable alternate through microbial route. However, this process still awaits technological advancements to be executed as a commercially feasible operation. The oil productivity in this bioprocess is significantly challenged by the conventional recovery techniques used. To address this problem, we propose an extractive production system using hydrophobic adsorbents as oil capturing agents for simultaneous in situ oil recovery. Three polystyrene and two organo‐silica‐based capturing agents were studied on a “cell mimic system” to attest to an increase in the rate of oil recovery. High sorption capacity demonstrated by SEPABEADS, stalled the oil saturation in the aqueous medium and thereby, enhances the extracellular efflux of the produced oil. The efflux of oil, when matched with the substrate assimilation, allows for an increased production rate of oil. As a result, we observe and report oil production to 80% dry cell weight and volumetric productivity of 0.11 g L−1 hour−1. With SEPABEADS SP70 as an in situ oil capturing agent in the broth, the wild type “Yarrowia lipolytica” cells yield 0.33 goil g−1glucose, allowing us to propose a highly efficient system for extractive production of microbial oil.

Keywords

• extractive production
• hydrophobic adsorbent
• in situ product removal
• microbial oil