Microalgae Path to Premium Vegetable Oil: Fermentation strategy to produce Auxenochlorella protothecoides single cell oil analogue to olive oil.

Authors

Md Mahabubur Rahman Talukder, Jun Wei Ng, Sze Ying Lee, Tong Mei Teh, Zhi En Low, Naulchan Khongsay, Iris Haberkorn, Byron Perez, Alexander Mathys, Melanie Weingarten

Published in

New biotechnology. Oct 06, 2026. Epub Oct 06, 2026.

Abstract

Microalgae are increasingly recognized as a sustainable oil source due to unique biological and ecological advantages. This study aims to develop a scalable heterotrophic high cell density fermentation strategy for microalgae Auxenochlorella protothecoides (AP) to produce single-cell oil analogue to olive oil. A batch fermentation yielded a dry cell weight (DCW) concentration of 20.0gL^-1 with 18.7% (w/w) oil content at a high glucose to yeast extract (YE) ratio of 3:1 (g/g). However, the resulting oil composition differed from that of olive oil. Additionally, the specific growth rate decreased at glucose concentration above 30.0gL^-1. To address this, a dissolved-oxygen (DO)-pH state fed-batch fermentation with controlled glucose feeding was developed, extending exponential growth and enabling tuning fatty acid composition. This approach increased DCW concentration to 80gL^-1 and oil content to 66.2%, predominantly composed of potentially high-value unsaturated fatty acids (87.3%). The fatty acid profile of AP oil varied with fermentation time. After 119h of cultivation, AP oil consisted of oleic acid (72.85±1.17%), ω-6 linoleic acid (12.28±0.20%), ω-3 linolenic (1.46±0.02%), stearic acid (3.32±0.05%) and palmitic acid (9.45±0.14%), similar to that of virgin olive oil. The process was scaled-up using 10L bioreactor, where AP achieved average cell biomass productivity of 0.36gL^-1 h^-1 and DCW of 76.3gL^-1, comparable to the 2L scale. The developed process demonstrates strong potential for producing virgin olive oil-like oil by customizing microalgae fatty acid profiles, offering a promising alternative to traditional plant-derived premium oils.

PMID:
42838484
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Oct 2026.

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