Use of Wastewaters from Ethanol Distilleries and Glycerol Mixtures for Microbial Oils Production

Abstract

Abstract:Biodiesel has become more attractive in recent years because of its environmental benefits. One way to reduce the high cost of biodiesel is by lowering the cost of raw materials specially oils. Recently, much attention has been paid to the development of microbial oils through cultures of oleaginous microorganisms in inexpensive substrates as the wastewaters of some food industries and the crude glycerol from biodiesel production itself. Thus, cultivation of oleaginous yeasts in glycerolbased media is attracting great interest and natural biodiversity is increasingly explored to identify novel oleaginous species recycling this carbon source for growth and lipid production. Identification of oleaginous yeasts and the evaluation in glycerol and vinasse mixtures was employed to produce biomass enriched in microbial lipids and to remove nutrients from vinasse simultaneously. The fatty acid composition of the lipids was similar to that from plant oils and other microbial lipids therefore they can be used as raw material for feed additives and biodiesel production.