Executive Summary : | Oleochemicals are compounds that are synthesized from animal and plant oils. They have immense applications in fuel industries especially biodiesel, cosmetics, soaps, detergents, plasticizers and lubricants. Oleochemicals market size is expected to reach USD 32.7 billion by the year 2027 at a CAGR of 5.7%, with fatty acids, methyl esters and fatty alcohols contributing the major share. At present, major oleochemicals are obtained predominantly from plant oils and crops. Accordingly, search for an alternate raw material has identified microbial lipids as a “third generation feedstock” and a sustainable route for the production of oleochemicals. Application of microbes for oil production and oleochemicals has several advantages like easy to grow, no seasonal variation, no adverse effect on climate, easy to scale-up the process. Non-conventional Oleaginous microbes offer attractive potential owing to their innate ability to accumulate lipids more than 20% of their dry cell weight. Lipid content may also reach up to 70 to 80% based on earlier reports. In this context, lipid accumulation power of oleaginous red yeast Rhodotorula glutinis or oleaginous fungi Mucor sp. would be harnessed for production of lipids and oleochemicals. Based on earlier studies, both the genus Rhodotorula glutinis. and Mucor sp. accumulate lipids composed mainly of medium chain and long chain fatty acids. Consequently, the study of type of fatty acids and chain length for the proposed yeast and fungi will certainly open up opportunities to efficiently convert the lipids to oleochemicals. Apart from lipid accumulation, the proposed oleaginous microbes possess several advantages like broader carbon utilization (utilize both C5 and C6 sugars), tolerance to toxic by-products, less prone to contamination, ability to produce carotenoids and other nutraceuticals. Locally available agro-industrial raw materials like sorghum syrup, rice straw, crude glycerol will be utilized for the study. Considering the potential benefits of the microbes the following objectives are proposed: 1. Process development for efficient conversion of agro-industrial feedstocks to microbial lipids using Rhodotorula glutinis and Mucor sp.. 2. Optimization, extraction of lipids from microbes, test the nature and type of fatty acids (short, medium or long chain fatty acids). 3. Lipase mediated transesterification of lipids to fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), fatty acids and other oleochemicals. Hypothesis to be tested: 1. Feasibility of utilizing single cell oil (SCO)/microbial oil for oleochemicals production; 2. Study the ability of oleaginous yeasts to grown on mixture of agro-industrial feedstocks with inhibitors 3. Efficiency of free and immobilized laccase for better conversion of lipids to oleochemicals. The project aims to develop a novel integrated bioprocess model to address concerns like low yield, non-selective chemical production and high cost of raw materials. |
Co-PI: | Dr. Arumugam Muthu, CSIR- National Institute For Interdisciplinary Science And Technology (Niist), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala-695019, Dr. Binod Parameswaran, CSIR- National Institute For Interdisciplinary Science And Technology (Niist), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala-695019 |