Author(s):
Castro, A. R. ; Guimarães, Maura Francisca Silva ; Oliveira, João Vítor ; Pereira, M. Alcina
Date: 2017
Persistent ID: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/47747
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Project/scholarship:
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/SFRH/SFRH%2FBD%2F64500%2F2009/PT;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876/147337/PT;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/5876-PPCDTI/126270/PT
;
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/COMPETE/126270/PT;
Subject(s): Rhodococcus opacus B4; Neutral lipids; Cork sorbents; Hydrocarbons; Biomethane; Valorisation; Science & Technology
Description
This work demonstrates that cork used as oil-spill sorbents, contaminated with liquid hydrocarbons, herein demonstrated with hexadecane, can be biologically treated by Rhodococcus opacus B4 with concomitant lipids production. R. opacus B4 consumed up to 96% of hexadecane (C16) impregnated in natural and regranulated cork sorbents after 48 h incubation, producing 0.59 ± 0.06 g of triacylglycerol (TAG) g 1 of C16 consumed with a TAG content of 0.60 ± 0.06 g g 1 of cellular dry weight (CDW) and 0.54 ± 0.05 g TAG g 1 of C16 consumed with a TAG content of 0.77 ± 0.04 g g 1 (CDW), respectively. TAG was mainly composed by fatty acids of 16 and 18 carbon chains demonstrating the feasibility of using it as raw material for biodiesel production. In addition, the obtained lipid-rich biomass (whole cells) can be used for biomethane production, at a yield of 0.4 L CH4 g 1 (CDW). The obtained results support a novel approach for management of oil-spill contaminated cork sorbents through its valorisation by producing bacterial lipids, which can be used as feedstocks for biofuels production.
This work was financially supported by the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) and European Social Fund (ESF, POPH-QREN) through the grant given to A.R. Castro (SFRH/BD/64500/2009), the FCT Strategic Project of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and the project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. The authors gratefully acknowledge Cortiçeira Amorim, S.A., Portugal, for providing the CORKSORB materials used in this work.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
