Biodiesel Production from Oleaginous Microorganisms with Organic Wastes as Raw Materials

Abstract

Abstract The chapter “Biodiesel production using oleaginous microbes with wastes as raw materials” discusses the recent developments in biodiesel production using microbial lipid. Microbial lipids are produced by oleaginous microorganisms (lipid content ≥ 20% w/w) during fermentation under specific environmental conditions. The chapter mainly focuses on oleaginous yeasts, fungi, and bacteria. The chapter explores waste substrates like municipal sludge, lignocellulosic wastes, and crude glycerol for microbial lipid fermentation. Significance of fermentation operational parameters like C/N ratio, feed-strategies, DO, and pH have been discussed for obtaining high biomass concentration and lipid productivity. Recent developments in biodiesel downstream processing like biomass harvesting, lipid extraction, transesterification, and biodiesel purification have also been discussed. Techno-economic studies and energy balance studies have been presented to investigate the feasibility of biodiesel production using microbial lipid at industrial scale.