Oils from Microorganisms
Edible Oil and Fat Products: Specialty Oils and Oil Products
Abstract
All microorganisms, bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and algae, produce lipids. The range of fatty acids that can be sourced from the lipids produced by the microbial world is vast. Some microbial species (described as oleaginous species) produce large amounts – sometimes up to 70% of the cell mass – of triacylglycerol oils, which can be produced in large volumes, be extracted and processed using techniques similar to those used for conventional and commercially produced plant seed oils. These microbial products are known as the single cell oils (SCO). They have, on occasion, been considered as alternative sources to plant-based oils. However, because of the high costs of fermentation technology needed to cultivate these microorganisms at a large scale, replacing commodity plant oils with SCO is uneconomical in the foreseeable future and only the highest valued microbial oils can be considered commercially viable. This article gives a brief background to microbial technology and gives examples of how SCOs were pioneered, as sources of gamma-linolenic acid, as alternatives to evening primrose oil and borage oil, and for the production of cocoa butter equivalent oils for use in chocolate confectionery. Current commercial productions of arachidonic acid (20:4, n−6) using the filamentous fungus, Mortierella alpina, and of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6, n−3) by the marine dinoflagellate, Crypthecodinium cohnii, and by various chytrids, for example Schizochytrium spp., are described. The potential future microbial lipid production of oil rich in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5, n−3) using a photosynthetic microalga, Nannochloropsis spp., is also described. The article also covers the current developments for the production of EPA + DHA as facsimile fish oils and also for the production of SCO or oil-rich microbial biomass to support the continued expansion of the aquaculture industry. The article also gives a brief discussion of the economic impossibility of using microorganisms, whether phototrophs or heterotrophs, for the production of biodiesel.
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