Biodiesel production using microbial lipids derived from food waste discarded by catering services.

Biodiesel production using microbial oil derived from food waste discarded by the hospilatity sector could provide a sustainable replacement for diesel fuel. Discarded potato peels were used in solid-state fermentations of Aspergillus awamori for the production of glucoamylase (30 U/g) and protease (50 U/g). Hospitality food waste hydrolysis led to 98% (w/w) starch to glucose conversion yields. Crude hydrolyzates were used in shake flask fermentations with the oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides Y-27012 leading to 32.9 g/L total dry weight (TDW) with 36.4% (w/w) intracellular lipid content. Fed-bath bioreactor cultures resulted in TDW of 53.9 g/L and lipid concentration of 26.7 g/L. Principal component analysis showed a fatty acid profile similar to soybean oil and solid food waste oil. Microbial oil was transesterified into biodiesel with satisfactory performance considering the European standard EN 14214. This work demonstrated that valorization of food waste for biodiesel production is feasible.

Auxiliary energy-assisted biodiesel production data from solid food waste oil.

A number of samples from solid food waste oil (SFWO) from different restaurants have been collected. Data regarding fatty acid profile, acid value, water content and kinematic viscosity were used for characterization purposes. Response surface methodology data has been used to carry out conventional transesterification optimization. The quality of the final product has been checked following the European biodiesel standard EN14214. To compare conventional and ultrasound-assisted transesterification results, energy consumption and reaction time data have been gathered. More information and result interpretation may be found in "Optimization of solid food waste oil biodiesel by ultrasound assisted transesterification" [1].