Abstract
Background: Microbial lipid production using renewable feedstock shows great promise for the biodiesel industry.
Results: In this study, the ability of a lipid-engineered Yarrowia lipolytica strain JMY4086 to produce lipids using
molasses and crude glycerol under different oxygenation conditions and at different inoculum densities was evaluated
in fed-batch cultures. The greatest lipid content, 31% of CDW, was obtained using a low-density inoculum, a
constant agitation rate of 800 rpm, and an oxygenation rate of 1.5 L/min. When the strain was cultured for 450 h in a
chemostat containing a nitrogen-limited medium (dilution rate of 0.01 h−1
; 250 g/L crude glycerol), volumetric lipid
productivity was 0.43 g/L/h and biomass yield was 60 g CDW/L. The coefficient of lipid yield to glycerol consumption
(YL/gly) and the coefficient of lipid yield to biomass yield (YL/X) were equal to 0.1 and 0.4, respectively.