Study on single cell oil from inulin fermented by Trichosporon cutaneum

Trichosporon cutaneum which could produce high oil content, was often used for the production of single cell oil.Microbial oil production from hydrolysates of inulin by T.cutaneum was studied.The effects of acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis and inulinase content of the fermentation media on oil production from hydrolysates of inulin by T.cutaneum were investigated.The results showed that enzymatic hydrolysis was better than acid hydrolysis, the maximum cell dry weight of 13.49g/L and lipids content of 5.26g/L was obtained when the enzymatic hydrolysis with inulinase (80U/50ml fermentation medium) was used.The lipid productivity reached 39%.The lipids from T.cutaneum contain mainly long-chain fatty acids with 16 and 18 carbon atoms.Over 80.5% of the fatty acids were C16:0, C18:1 and C18:2, especially C18:1 (53.1%) .Therefore, the results showed that the lipid from inulin by T.cutaneum could be an alternative feedstock for biodiesel production.