Analysis of technological alternatives for microbial oil production

Abstract

At present, lignocellulosic biomass and especially agro-industrial by-products have ceased to be considered solid residues, to become potential raw materials for various processes. In this sense, the present work aims to analyze technological alternatives for  obtaining microbial oil in a pilot facility, through simulation in SuperPro Designer simulator, in order to implement a process that is technically, economically and environmentally efficient.  Starting from a previous experimental work, where the best results for the cell growth stage were obtained at a C/N ratio of 100 and a fermentation time of 72 hours. The technological design of a base case of a plant for the production of microbial oil was based on the process designed by Vieira (2016) 1 and simulated as technological alternatives to obtain microbial oil by submerged fermentation (alternative 1) and solid-state fermentation (alternative 2). Technical, economic and environmental analyzes of each technological alternative were performed, obtaining the best results for alternative 2, in which a production of 614.9 liters of oil per year is obtained, a productivity of 2.66 g/Lh, and a unit cost of 224.25 €/L. In addition the filtered residues can be recycled, or can be used as a feedstock for animal feed production.