Microbial lipid fermentation of Trichosporon cutaneum in high saline water

Fermentative production of microbial lipid requires high fresh water input. The utilization of high saline seawater or industrial wastewater is an important alternative to reduce the freshwater consumption. This study revealed that oleaginous yeast Trichosporon cutaneum was tolerant to a high salinity up to 130 g/L of NaCl after long-term adaptive evolution. Lipid fermentation of T. cutaneum in seawater achieved the lipid production of 31.7 g/L with approximately 36% greater than that in freshwater. The saline water containing phenol was also tested for lipid fermentation and 23.6 g/L of lipid was produced simultaneously with the complete biodegradation of phenol. An interesting phenomenon was also observed that the yeast cells spontaneously segregated onto the upper surface of the saline water. This study extended the lipid fermentation options with practical application potentials.