New Method for the Extraction of Single-Cell Oils from Wet Oleaginous Microbial Biomass: Efficiency, Oil Characterisation and Energy Assessment

Culture medium composition and an efficient lipid extraction process have the largest impact on the cost of industrial production of microbial single-cell oil (SCO). In this study, SCO from the yeast Rhodosporidium thoruloides grown in sugarcane medium was successfully produced in a 1 m3 bioreactor. Biomass was concentrated by sedimentation and the acid-hydrolysed cells were extracted using a recurrent extraction (RE) and a newly-proposed wet...