Erica L. Bakota

Comparative lipid production by oleaginous yeasts in hydrolyzates of lignocellulosic biomass and process strategy for high titers

Oleaginous yeasts can convert sugars to lipids with fatty acid profiles similar to those of vegetable oils, making them attractive for production of biodiesel. Lignocellulosic biomass is an attractive source of sugars for yeast lipid production because it is abundant, potentially low cost, and renewable. However, lignocellulosic hydrolyzates are laden with byproducts which inhibit microbial growth and metabolism. With the goal of identifying oleaginous yeast strains able to convert plant biomass to lipids, we screened 32 strains from the ARS Culture Collection, Peoria, IL to identify four robust strains able to produce high lipid concentrations from both acid and base‐pretreated biomass. The screening was arranged in two tiers using undetoxified enzyme hydrolyzates of ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX)‐pretreated cornstover as the primary screening medium and acid‐pretreated switch grass as the secondary screening medium applied to strains passing the primary screen. Hydrolyzates were prepared at ∼18–20% solids loading to provide ∼110 g/L sugars at ∼56:39:5 mass ratio glucose:xylose:arabinose. A two stage process boosting the molar C:N ratio from 60 to well above 400 in undetoxified switchgrass hydrolyzate was optimized with respect to nitrogen source, C:N, and carbon loading. Using this process three strains were able to consume acetic acid and nearly all available sugars to accumulate 50–65% of cell biomass as lipid (w/w), to produce 25–30 g/L lipid at 0.12–0.22 g/L/h and 0.13–0.15 g/g or 39–45% of the theoretical yield at pH 6 and 7, a performance unprecedented in lignocellulosic hydrolyzates. Three of the top strains have not previously been reported for the bioconversion of lignocellulose to lipids. The successful identification and development of top‐performing lipid‐producing yeast in lignocellulose hydrolyzates is expected to advance the economic feasibility of high quality biodiesel and jet fuels from renewable biomass, expanding the market potential for lignocellulose‐derived fuels beyond ethanol for automobiles to the entire U.S. transportation market. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2016;113: 1676–1690.

Synthesis of steryl ferulates with various sterol structures and comparison of their antioxidant activity

Steryl ferulates synthesised from commercial sterols as well as commercial oryzanol were used to better understand how structural features affect antioxidant activity in vitro by the ABTS(+) radical decolorization assay, by oxidative stability index (OSI) of soybean oil, and by analysis of antioxidant activity during frying. Steryl ferulates inhibited the ABTS(+) radical by 6.5-56.6%, depending on their concentration, but were less effective, especially at lower concentrations, than ferulic acid. Ferulic acid and steryl ferulates had either no effect, or lowered the OSI of soybean oil by up to 25%, depending on the concentration. In their evaluation as frying oil antioxidants, steryl ferulates with a saturated sterol group had the best antioxidant activity, followed by sterols with one double bond in the C5 position. The results indicate that a dimethyl group at C4 as well as a C9,C19 cyclopropane group, as found in oryzanol, negatively affects antioxidant activity in frying oils.

Detection of Corn Adulteration in Brazilian Coffee (Coffea arabica) by Tocopherol Profiling and Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy

Coffee is a high-value commodity that is a target for adulteration, leading to loss of quality and causing significant loss to consumers. Therefore, there is significant interest in developing methods for detecting coffee adulteration and improving the sensitivity and accuracy of these methods. Corn and other lower value crops are potential adulterants, along with sticks and coffee husks. Fourteen pure Brazilian roasted, ground coffee bean samples were adulterated with 1-20% of roasted, ground corn and were analyzed for their tocopherol content and profile by HPLC. They were also analyzed by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. Both proposed methods of detection of corn adulteration displayed a sensitivity of around 5%, thus representing simple and fast analytical methods for detecting adulteration at likely levels of contamination. Further studies should be conducted to verify the results with a much larger sample size and additional types of adulterants.

Improved oxidative stability of biodiesel via alternative processing methods using cottonseed oil

Abstract Biodiesel from waste cooking oil (WCO) requires antioxidants to meet oxidation stability specifications set forth in ASTM D6751 or EN 14214. In contrast, unrefined cottonseed oil (CSO), containing tocopherols and gossypol, produces biodiesel of higher oxidation stability. However, only a portion of these CSO endogenous antioxidants are suspected to be retained in biodiesel. Because the economics of biodiesel manufacturing rely upon inexpensive sources of triglycerides, emphasis was placed on developing improved alternative processing methods where WCO was the main source of methyl esters (WCOME) and CSO was used as a supplemental source of triglycerides and antioxidants in a 4:1 ratio. This study compared four processing methods for their ability to produce biodiesel of increased oxidative stability prepared from a 4:1 ratio of WCO:CSO. Two novel processing methods developed for this study utilise solvent properties of fatty acid methyl esters and glycerol to avoid additional chemical inventory for biodiesel processors. This study concludes that the two new processing methods resulted in biodiesel that had statistically significant improved oxidation stability when compared to two common industrial processing methods. Another significant finding is that high-shear homogenisation during transesterification reduced reaction time from the published one hour to 16 minutes.