Abstract
The present work, aiming to exploit oleaginous fungi for biodiesel production. Ten fungal strains were isolated from two petroleum polluted soil samples and screened for their abilities to accumulate lipid. Lipid rich three species viz, Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus were found to be the highest lipid producers. Potential isolates were identified at the species level by morphological (macroscopic and microscopic) examination and molecularly confirmed by using 18S rRNA gene sequencing. Improvement of lipid accumulation was performed by optimization of various parameters of culture conditions. The results reported clearly that the suitable medium for high lipid production (38.33%) by Aspergillus terreus as the most potent lipid producer, was composed of 50 g/L sucrose, 0.5 g/L ammonium nitrate with initial pH 6.0, after seven days of incubation in a static condition. The three promising lipid isolates have been selected for fatty acids analysis by gas chromatograph (GC) after transesterification. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) profile indicated the presence of higher saturated fatty acid fractions compared to polyunsaturated fatty acids. The total concentration of fatty acids was 107.98, 38.29, and 37.48 mg/100g of lipid accumulated by A. terreus, A. niger and A. flavus, respectively. Gas chromatographic analysis of A. terreus lipid indicated that oleic acid (C18:1, 18.51%) was the most abundant fatty acid, followed by stearic acid (C18:0, 15.91%) and Myristic acid (C14:0, 14.64%), respectively. Therefore, fatty acid profile of A. terreus has confirmed its potentiality as feedstock for producing lipid for biodiesel manufacturing.
Highlights
There is a growing concern on global warming due to the increased worldwide consumption of fossil fuels, which is associated with the emission of greenhouse gases (Matsakas et al, 2017; Campbell-Lendrum & Prüss-Ustün, 2019)
Our results indicated that the fatty acyl methyl/ethyl esters (FAMEs) profile of lipids produced by promising fungal isolates showed properties similar to those of biodiesel, validating its superior quality (Wu et al, 2010; Gadallah & Abd-El-Haleem, 2014; Babakura et al, 2019)
Experimental data revealed the goals of the work, promising fungal isolates Aspergillus terreus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus exhibited satisfactory lipid accumulation and constructed for biodiesel production
Summary
There is a growing concern on global warming due to the increased worldwide consumption of fossil fuels, which is associated with the emission of greenhouse gases (Matsakas et al, 2017; Campbell-Lendrum & Prüss-Ustün, 2019). Biofuel production from single cell oils produced by oleaginous microorganisms, including microalgae, bacteria, molds, and yeasts, has recently garnered considerable attention (Tao et al, 2006; Meng et al, 2009; Ramírez-Castrillón et al, 2017; Papanikolaou, 2019). Microbial lipids (i.e., single cell oils) are a promising feedstock for biodiesel production (Li et al, 2008; Meng et al, 2009; Subramaniam et al, 2010; Hoekman et al, 2012; Abdel-Hamied et al, 2018; Cho & Park, 2018; Dorya et al, 2018; Bharti, 2019)
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