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BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram

Single cell oil PUFA production by food rest materials

Awarded: NOK 4.2 mill.

During the project period a first stage screening of oleaginous fungi was performed on a control medium. For the screening of the fatty acid profiles, high-throughput FTIR spectroscopy and gas chromatography have been used. FTIR spectroscopy data was calibrated against gas chromatography data. Good prediction models with coefficients of determination of 0.6 for SAT (saturated fatty acids), 0.83 for MUFA (monounsaturated fatty acids) and 0.78 for PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) were obtained. These models will be used for any further fatty acid profile screening in the project. As a result of the screening, two types of fungal species (Mucor circinelloides and Mortierella alpina) have been selected for further process optimization and up-scaling. Different rest materials (svine pulp, chicken intestines, potato and potato peel) have been processed by steam explosion. Chemical elemental analysis was performed and solubility of steam exploded rest materials was analysed. The obtained solubility of chicken rest materials was approximately 50%, while potato and potato peel showed a solubility of around 10%. A study on the effect of steam explosion parameters (temperature, time and pressure) on the solubility of food rest materials is running.

There is a growing interest in sources of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) that represent alternatives to fish oil. The main focus is on microorganisms as sources of edible lipids, the single cell oils (SCO), due to their ability to produce l ipids that are rarely found in the plant or animal sources. Filamentous fungi show a greater diversity of lipid types and fatty acids than other microorganisms. In addition, due to their ability to utilize a broad range of substrates, wastes of food proc essing industry can be used as a cheap substrate/cultivation medium for fungal fermentation. The aim of the SingleCellOil project is to apply a high-throughput micro-bioreactor system and FTIR spectroscopy for selection of fungal strains with naturally hi gh PUFA content and to optimize substrates based on food processing wastes (chicken by-products, potato peel, eggshells and fish by-products) for fungal fermentation. The main focus will be put on optimization of fermentation parameters, extraction and pu rification procedures towards a high yield of PUFA. There are four main research and development activities that the industry partners want to outsource to the RTD partners. The first is the high-throughput screening of fungi in order to establish a libr ary of PUFA producing fungi. The second is the optimization of food processing wastes to be sued as a cultivation medium in fungal fermentation. The third is an extensive screening of the library of oleaginous fungi with substrates derived from different food processing wastes. Finally, the fourth activity is the optimization of fermentation conditions on lab/industrial scale and the development of extraction and purification procedures. These four innovations combined will allow performing value added ut ilization of food processing wastes and creating a new marketable product: single cell oil PUFA.

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BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram