Optimization of Lipid Production Potential of Oleaginous Yeast by Response Surface Methodology Cultivated in Agro-Industrial Waste

The study was designed to isolate oleaginous yeasts with remarkable lipid production potential from diverse local soil samples using glycerol enrichment technique. The select eight isolates were grown in nitrogen-limited media and screened for lipid production potential by the Sudan Black B staining. Potato starch is major waste of agriculture industry. To explore the optimized potential of a select C2 native oleaginous yeast isolate for microbial lipid production from potato starch as carbon source, 3-factorial central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM) was applied in batch experiments. Optimized results of CCD, RSM revealed lipid yield and cellular lipid contents up to 0.441 g/g total reducing sugar and 7.86 g/L, respectively. The predominant accumulated lipids were lauric acid (C12:0) and myristic acid (C14:0) as identified by GC–MS. These results demonstrated that lipids may produced using wastes/low cost substrates of agriculture industry, ultimately lead to reduction of biodiesel production cost. Furthermore, it is explored in this study that enough lipid yielding microbes from unconventional and economical substrates can support this budding route of cost effective biofuel production with additional incentive of waste management.