Effect of synthetic and natural media on lipid production from Fusarium oxysporum

Background: Dependence on fossil resources, for the production of fuels and energy, has resulted in environmental and financial problems, which require our immediate action in order to reverse the situation. Use of renewable sources for the production of fuels and energy is an important alternative with biodiesel remains as one of the promising options. Aim of this work is to evaluate the fungus Fusarium oxysporum for its potentials to accumulate microbial lipids when grown on synthetic media and saccharified sweet sorghum stalks. Results: The effect of different carbon sources, nitrogen sources and C/N ratio on the lipid production was initially examined, which resulted in a lipid concentration of 4.4 g/L, with lipid content of 42.6% w/w. Sweet sorghum stalks were able to support growth and lipid production of the fungus, both as carbon source and as nitrogen source. It was also shown that saccharification of the dried stalks is an important step to increase lipid production. Removal of the remaining stalk solids enabled the lipid production during cultivation in increased initial solids of up to 16 w/w. This resulted in a lipid production of 3.81 g/L. Conclusions: It was demonstrated that F. oxysporum can be used as an efficient oleaginous microorganism, with sweet sorghum serving as an excellent raw material for the cultivation of the fungus. The lipids obtained during this work were also found to have a fatty acid profile with good potentials to be used for biodiesel production.

Green conversion of municipal solid wastes into fuels and chemicals

Presently, the society is facing a serious challenge for the effective management of the increasing amount of produced municipal solid wastes. The accumulated waste has caused a series of environmental problems such as uncontrolled release of greenhouse gases. Moreover, the increasing amount of wastes has resulted in a shortage of areas available for waste disposal, resulting in a nonsustainable waste management. These problems led to serious public concerns, which in turn resulted in political actions aiming to reduce the amount of wastes reaching the environment. These actions aim to promote sustainable waste management solutions. The main objective of these policies is to promote the recycling of municipal solid waste and the conversion of waste to energy and valuable chemicals. These conversions can be performed using either biological (e.g., anaerobic digestion) or thermochemical processes (e.g., pyrolysis). Research efforts during the last years have been fruitful, and many publications demonstrated the effective conversation of municipal solid waste to energy and chemicals. These processes are discussed in the current review article together with the change of the waste policy that was implemented in the EU during the last years.