Quantitative analysis of fatty-acid-based biofuels produced by wild-type and genetically engineered cyanobacteria by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Simple and rapid quantitative determination of fatty-acid-based biofuels is greatly important for the study of genetic engineering progress for biofuels production by microalgae. Ideal biofuels produced from biological systems should be chemically similar to petroleum, like fatty-acid-based molecules including free fatty acids, fatty acid methyl esters, fatty acid ethyl esters, fatty alcohols and fatty alkanes. This study founded a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) method for simultaneous quantification of seven free fatty acids, nine fatty acid methyl esters, five fatty acid ethyl esters, five fatty alcohols and three fatty alkanes produced by wild-type Synechocystis PCC 6803 and its genetically engineered strain. Data obtained from GC–MS analyses were quantified using internal standard peak area comparisons. The linearity, limit of detection (LOD) and precision (RSD) of the method were evaluated. The results demonstrated that fatty-acid-based biofuels can be directly determined by GC–MS without derivation. Therefore, rapid and reliable quantitative analysis of fatty-acid-based biofuels produced by wild-type and genetically engineered cyanobacteria can be achieved using the GC–MS method founded in this work.