Fed-batch fermentation of olive mill wastewaters for lipase production

• Author(s): Gonçalves, Cristiana ; Oliveira, F. ; Pereira, C. ; Belo, Isabel
• Date: 2012
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/23380
• Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Subject(s): Candida species; Yarrowia lipolytica; Olive mill wastewater; Fed-batch fermentation
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

In the Mediterranean basin countries, huge amounts of olive mill wastewaters (OMW) are produced by the olive oil industry. It constitutes a serious environmental problem, nevertheless its composition turns OMW into a potential growth medium to lipolytic microorganisms. The aim of this work was to study lipase production as well as OMW degradation in fed-batch cultures of Candida cylindracea CBS 7869, Candida rugosa CBS 2275 and Yarrowia lipolytica W29 (ATCC 20460). Besides the improvement of lipase production, the fed-batch approach enhanced the effluent degradation, since it led to good COD and lipids reduction, both higher than 50%. C. rugosa achieved the highest value of lipase productivity (130 U L−1 h−1), in parallel with highest lipids reduction (77%). This study demonstrates thatOMWare becoming a competitive and valuable growth medium in fermentation processes with lipolytic microorganisms. The fed-batch strategy used proved to be an efficient approach to enhance lipase production from OMW and to reduce significantly the final organic load of the medium.