Lipid Recovery from a Vegetable Oil Emulsion Using Microbial Cultures

Many waste streams have relatively high vegetable oil content, which is a potential resource that should be recovered. Hence, Jelmer Tamis from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands investigated microbial storage compound production for the recovery of lipids from unsterilized lipid-water emulsions in a sequencing batch reactor using a diluted vegetable oil emulsion as model substrate.

From the emulsions, triacylglycerides (TAG) were collected by the microbial culture and was stored intracellular. Roughly 50% of the TAG could be recovered as intracellular lipids in this culture. The microbial community was found to be dominated by a lipolytic fungus, Trichosporon gracile, that was responsible for intracellular lipid accumulation. A significant fraction of lipolytic and long chain fatty-acid-utilizing bacteria was also present in the community.

The team demonstrated an effective strategy of using a microbial community that can collect significant amounts of lipids from wastewaters without sterilization or equipment. Further optimization of this process will make recovery of lipids from wastewater possible.