Biodiesel production from biomass of an oleaginous fungus

The present paper introduces the filamentous fungus Mucor circinelloides as a potential feedstock for biodiesel production These microbial lipids showed a high content (>85%) of saponifiable matter and a suitable fatty acid profile for biodiesel production The effectiveness of the lipid extraction process was Studied for three different solvent systems chloroform methanol, chloroform methanol water and n-hexane. Biodiesel was produced by acid-catalysed transesterification/esterification following two different approaches transformation of extracted microbial lipids and direct transformation of dry microbial biomass After 8 h of reaction at 65 degrees C in the presence of BF(3), H(2)SO(4) or HCl as acid catalysts, the direct process produced fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) with higher purities (>99% for all catalysts) than those from the two-step process (91 4-98 0%) In addition, the yield was also significantly higher in the direct transformation due to a more efficient lipid extraction when the acid catalyst was present (C) 2009 Elsevier B V All rights reserved