Isolation and characterization of a microbial oil-producing cyanobacterial strain for the provision of bioenergy generation

Isolation and characterization of a microbial oil-producing cyanobacterial strain for the provision of bioenergy generation

Production of biofuel has aroused intensive interest, owing to increased concern regarding limited petroleum-based fuel supplies and their adverse environmental impacts caused by greenhouse gases. Lipids of cyanobacteria and microalgae could be promising feedstock for biodiesel production. Compared to lipid production and extraction from algae, little work has been conducted on lipid production and its function-structure relationship by cyanobacteria. In this study, eight cyanobacterial strains were screened and evaluated for their biomass productivity and lipid content. Among them, a bacterial strain with maximal biomass and lipid productivity was selected and identified as a bacterium belonging to the genus Synechococcus. Synechococcus sp. could achieve 11 % total lipid content, yielding fatty acid metabolites at the productivity of 212.63 mg l-1. Analysis of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) of cyanobacterial biomass samples using Gas-chromatography (GC) method showed high content of C-16 (saturated and unsaturated) and C-18 (saturated and unsaturated) fatty acids as 83.2% and 6.8%, respectively, most commonly correlating with storage lipids. The results suggest that the extracted lipids from Synechococcus sp. could be a promising feedstock for biodiesel production as a clean energy.