A review of lipid accumulation by oleaginous yeasts: Culture mode

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 919; p. 170385
• Main Authors: Lei, Yuxin, Wang, Xuemei, Sun, Shushuang, He, Bingyang, Sun, Wenjin, Wang, Kexin, Chen, Zhengxian, Guo, Zhiling, Li, Zifu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.04.2024
• Subjects: Biofuels; Continuous culture mode; Cost investigation; Lipids; Low-cost substrate; Microbial lipids; Pilot-scale; Reproducibility of Results; Yeasts; Low-cost substrate; acyl-CoA; kLa; C/N; Microbial lipids; C/P; CO2; VFAs; DO; LCA; Pilot-scale; Cost investigation; NOX; DCW; MSC-HCDC; TAG; Continuous culture mode; SCO
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170385

Microbial lipids have attracted considerable interest owing to their favorable environmental sustainability benefits. In laboratory-scale studies, the factors impacting lipid production in oleaginous yeasts, including culture conditions, nutrients, and low-cost substrates, have been extensively studied. However, there were several different modes of microbial lipid cultivation (batch culture, fed-batch culture, continuous culture, and other novel culture modes), making it difficult to comprehensively analyze impacting factors under different cultivation modes on a laboratory scale. And only few cases of microbial lipid production have been conducted at the pilot scale, which requires more technological reliability assessments and environmental benefit evaluations. Thus, this study summarized the different culture modes and cases of scale-up processes, highlighting the role of the nutrient element ratio in regulating culture mode selection and lipid accumulation. The cost distribution and environmental benefits of microbial lipid production by oleaginous yeasts were also investigated. Our results suggested that the continuous culture mode was recommended for the scale-up process because of its stable lipid accumulation. More importantly, exploring the continuous culture mode integrated with other efficient culture modes remained to be further investigated. In research on scale-up processes, low-cost substrate (organic waste) application and optimization of reactor operational parameters were key to increasing environmental benefits and reducing costs. [Display omitted] •Different culture modes at laboratory scale had been systematic reviewed.•Existing pilot scale cultures were also reviewed.•Continuous culture mode is recommended for industrial scale production processes.•Reduction of microbial lipid production cost approaches was identified.•Oleaginous yeast production of microbial lipids has environmental benefits.