Development of a reversible immobilised cell reactor for the valorisation of dilute phenol waste streams to microbial oil.

Diluted phenol-rich streams occur regularly in lignocellulose-based biorefineries. Today, phenols are often regarded as waste. Some microorganisms can convert phenols into valuable intracellular components by fermentation. This makes the troublesome waste stream a raw material and an economic opportunity. To efficiently concentrate these dilute phenolic streams by conversion to intracellular components, it is necessary to speed up the process. In practice this often happens by increasing the amount of microorganisms, the biocatalyst, and consequently creating high cell concentrations. There is no efficient economic process for integrated fermentation and recovery of intracellular products. Our hypothesis is that the design of a new reactor type, namely a reversible immobilized cell reactor (RIR), offers a possible solution. In this reactor successively adhesion of the cells on a suitable support, fermentation, and finally desorption, to recover the intracellular components occurs. As a case study, the production of microbial oil is investigated starting from the phenolic hydrolysate obtained during the thermochemical treatment of lignocellulose. The aim of this project is to design an economically feasible process for valorising this phenolic flow. The new process will contribute to obtaining a biomass based circular economy.

Keywords:LIPIDS

Disciplines:(Bio)chemical reactors, Intensification, (Waste)water treatment processes, Bioprocessing, bioproduction and bioproducts, Fermentation