Scientists from the National University of Singapore report a resource-recovery strategy for the utilization of crude glycerol from biodiesel production operations into a value-added product. They used a corn fungus called, Ustilago maydis, to convert crude glycerol into glycolipids. Glycolipids are compounds with carbohydrate and lipophilic moieties, and these structural feature make them promising surfactants for applications in "enhanced oil recovery, crude oil drilling, lubrication, surfactant-aided bioremediation, health care and food." They optimized the medium composition and environmental factors for the microbial bioprocessing of crude glycerol to glycolipids, and used a fed-batch culture system for bioreactor operation.. They were able to show that Ustilago maydis "is able to efficiently utilize and convert crude glycerol to glycolipid-type biosurfactant in a relatively simple synthetic medium using crude glycerol as the sole carbon source." The results of their findings are published in the journal, Bioresource Technology (URL above).