加快微生物油脂研究为生物柴油产业提供廉价原料

当前国内外致力于发展生物柴油,因其性能优良,成为化石柴油的替代品。由于以植物油脂生产生物柴油原料成本占总成本的70％-85％,所以亟待开发廉价油脂资源。微生物油脂主要是微生物利用碳水化合物合成的甘油脂,其脂肪酸组成和植物油相近。产油微生物具有资源丰富、油脂含量高、碳源利用谱广等特点,开发潜力大。然而,目前微生物油脂生产成本偏高,研究工作仍以富含多不饱和脂肪酸的高附加值菌油为目标。随着现代分子生物学和生物化工技术的发展,对产油微生物菌种筛选、改良、代谢调控和发酵工程的研究日趋深入,将降低微生物油脂生产成本,为未来生物柴油产业提供廉价原料。

Toward Cheaper Microbial Oil for Biodiesel Oil

Biodiesel, chemically defined as a mixture of long chain fatty acid esters, is generally believed as an ideal replacement of diesel.It is generally prepared by trans-esterification of plant oil with methanol. However,biodiesel is currently more expensive than conventional diesel due to high cost share of 70 % - 85 % for raw material. One option could be the exploitation of carbohydrate-based microbial oil, as it consists of similar fatty acids to that of plant oil. There are diverse oleaginous microorganisms capable of accumulating lipids and metabolizing different carbohydrates, which originate from renewable lignocellulosic biomass. Up to date, high cost is still the major barrier to large-scale production of microbial oil, so research is focused on those with high poly-unsaturated fatty acids content. Modern biochemical engineering technology and molecular biology tools will greatly enhance our ability to manipulate oleaginous microorganisms. Therefore, cost-effective microbial oil will hopefully be available for biodiesel production in the near future.