Fungus strain for biodiesel production

Biodiesel, also known fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), has become more attractive as an alternative fuel because of its environmental benefits, including low toxicity and favourable emission profile. There are various methods of biodiesel production. Biocatalytic enzymatic method and chemical transesterification are promising methods among others. Biocatalytic enzymatic method offers mild reaction conditions and reduction in chemical wastes. However, biocatalysis of plant derived oil (PDO) feedstocks has relatively high price of pure lipase enzyme for use in the tranesterification reaction and has short operational period. Jeffrey and Ms. Xiao Man of Faculty of Engineering, National University of Singapore have conducted an investigation to undertake fundamental research on the locally isolated strains of fungus to investigate whole-cell performance as a biocatalyst for the conversion of PDOs to FAME. The investigation has yielded a microbial mold isolate (JN7) from the local environment having a high intrinsic lipase production and suitable for use as a whole cell biocatalyst for the transesterification of PDOs. The transesterification reaction resulted in a 86% yield of FAME in 72 hours when immobilized on biological support particles.