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Valorisation of sawdust through the combined microwave-assisted hydrothermal pre-treatment and fermentation using an oleaginous yeast

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Abstract

Oleaginous yeast, cultured on second-generation lignocellulosic resources, has the potential to be a key part of the future energy sector. However, the multiple unit operations necessary to produce concentrated hydrolysates, with a minimum of fermentation inhibitors, limit the applicability to date. In this study, a simple microwave-assisted hydrothermal pre-treatment step of oak or beech sawdust was deployed to produce an oligosaccharide-rich hydrolysate. This was then catabolised by the oleaginous yeast, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, avoiding the need for costly enzymatic or further chemical steps in the processing. Up to 85% of the sawdust’s hemicelluloses could be solubilised under these conditions, and 8 g/L DCW yeast with a 42% lipid content produced. While a number of studies have demonstrated that oleaginous yeasts possess high inhibitor tolerance, using this real lignocellulosic hydrolysate, we demonstrate that lipid production is actually very sensitive to inhibitor and carbon availability, and the optimal system is not the one that gives the highest hydrolysate or cell biomass. Indeed, the yeast was shown to detoxify the inhibitors in the process, but at high inhibitor loading, this leads to very poor lipid production, especially at high furfural levels. These findings clearly highlight the importance of considering multiple variables when real, complex lignocellulosic media are involved, tuning process conditions based on the desired fermentation outcomes.

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Abbreviations

OPEX:

Operating expenses

M. pulcherrima :

Metschnikowia pulcherrima

5-HMF:

5-Hydroxymethylfurfural

Furf:

Furfural

2-PE:

2-Phenylethanol

DPs:

Degree of polymerisation

XMG:

Sum of xylose, mannose and galactose

DCW:

Dry cell weight

SEM:

Standard error of the means

SCC:

Shewart Control Charts

OOC:

Out of control

UCL:

Upper control line

LCL:

Lower control line

SD:

Standard deviation

μ max:

Maximum growth rate

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Hannah Briers and Paul Elliott for expert technical assistance.

Funding

This work is financially supported by the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst (Innovate UK, BBSRC, EPSRC) to support the translation, development and commercialisation of innovative industrial Biotechnology processes (EP/N013522/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK

    Luca Longanesi, Hadiza Auta & Christopher J. Chuck

  2. Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Florent P. Bouxin, Jiajun Fan, Richard Gammons, Vitaily L. Budarin, Aikaterini Vriza & James H. Clark

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  1. Luca Longanesi
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Correspondence to Jiajun Fan or Christopher J. Chuck.

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Longanesi, L., Bouxin, F.P., Fan, J. et al. Valorisation of sawdust through the combined microwave-assisted hydrothermal pre-treatment and fermentation using an oleaginous yeast. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 12, 2487–2499 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-020-00757-3

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