The Oil Production of Fusarium equiseti UMN-1

Abstract

The production of microbial lipids offers a potential utilization of lignocelluloses to generate biofuel products. While ethanol can only be blended with gasoline to reduce consumption, microbial lipids can be processed to “drop-in” fuel products and compatible to current engines. Fungal lipid accumulation from lignocelluloses has great potential and deserves further research and development for the following reasons: 1) It is more suitable to develop a smaller scale and more robust bioconversion approach, which would be a significant advance in the bioenergy sciences & 2) It offers greater potential for lignocelluloses utilization and possible commercialization. The objective of this research is to develop a small scale conversion platform to integrate agricultural biomass harvesting, packaging, storage, and pre-processing to produce fungal lipids as a “drop in” fuel.