article · Fermentation
Producing microbial lipids, also known as single cell oils, requires selecting suitable growth conditions and feedstocks to maximise conversion into storage fats. Lignocellulosic biomass serves as an abundant, renewable, and sustainable raw material containing significant fermentable sugars. Due to the complex structure and biochemical recalcitrance of this biomass, specific pretreatment processes are necessary to liberate the sugars. However, these pretreatments inevitably generate various chemical inhibitors alongside assimilable sugars. These inhibitory compounds can substantially hinder oleaginous microbial cell growth, disrupt metabolic activity, and suppress lipid synthesis. Addressing these challenges requires understanding how different hydrolysate inhibitors operate at a mechanistic level. Examining the modes of inhibition alongside potential detoxification strategies provides foundational insights necessary to mitigate inhibitor toxicity and enhance lipid yields during microbial fermentation.
Microbial oils offer a renewable alternative to traditional plant and fossil-derived oils. However, using agricultural and forestry residues is complicated by toxic by-products created during processing. Understanding how these chemical inhibitors suppress microorganism growth and oil accumulation is essential for designing effective detoxification methods, which could make renewable biomass a more practical raw material for bio-based production.
This work represents early-stage technical research focusing on reaction mechanisms and bioprocess hurdles. The insights could inform bioprocess engineers and industrial biotechnology firms working on producing single cell oils from agricultural waste for biofuels or industrial lipids. Practical commercial use remains distant, as scalable and cost-effective detoxification processes must be developed and validated under industrial fermentation conditions to make the conversion economically viable.
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For efficient production of microbial lipids also known as single cell oil (SCO), selection of favorable growth conditions including the substrate for maximum conversion into storage lipids is imperative. Utilization of lignocellulosic biomass for microbial oil production is a promising approach as it is renewable, sustainable, and available in abundance, with a significant quantity of fermentable sugars. Because of their intricate structure and biomolecular composition, lignocellulosic substrates exhibit high recalcitrance and demand specific pretreatments to release the fermentable sugars. However, pretreating the lignocellulosic substrate not only produces assimilable sugars but also various fermentation inhibitors that can significantly impede microbial growth and/or lipogenesis. Therefore, in this review, we discuss different inhibitors present in the lignocellulosic hydrolysates, and the impact on oleaginous microbial growth and metabolic activity, particularly concerning lipid production. Furthermore, the mode of inhibition of the various inhibitors and potential strategies to detoxify these are discussed in this review.
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DOI: 10.3390/fermentation11030121
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