Production of lipids for bioconversion to biodiesel using new sludge isolated microorganisms and employing wastewater sludge as a raw material

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Wastewater sludge is produced in large quantityand its safe disposal in the environment is a world wide problem. The long term goal of our research is to produce value added products using sludge as a raw material. Demand for fattyacid methyl esters (FAMEs) as biodiesel has increased significantlydue to the depleting crude oil supplies, instabilityof petroleum prices, necessityto reduce GHG and the development of government measures to establish a minimum proportion of biofuel in transport. Therefore, the principal objective of the present research is to develop an economical process for biodiesel production using wastewatersludge as raw material. In fact, we have isolated new heterotrophic oleaginous strains which accumulate lipids up to 60% of cell dryweight and proliferate in sludge. Based on our calculation we find that biodiesel production from sludge has an output/input energyratio of 5.1 and substantiallyreduced green house gases. Therefore, the specific objectives of the present research project are: identification of new strains, optimize the process parameters for lipid production (pH, C:N ratio, sludge solids concentration, feeding strategy, temperature); sludge hydrolysis to increase growth & lipids accumulation byoleaginous strains; to establish scale-up criteria and to studythe extraction of lipids from fermented sludge biomass and conversion of lipids tobiodiesel. The successful completion of the research: 1) will provide a new process for economical biodiesel production; 2) reduce the sludge volume by60-70 % w/w for disposal and hence minimize disposal cost; and 4) minimize production of green house gases through replacement of petroleum diesel bybiodiesel. Furthermore, this research is verytimelyand will aid Canadian industryto develop eco-friendlyand commerciallyviable biodiesel strengthening Canada`s environmental policy. 3 PhD, 1 PDF and a research assistant will be trained on this new subject.