Yarrowia lipolytica as a biorefinery platform for effluents and solid wastes valorization – challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Due to its physiological and enzymatic features, Yarrowia lipolytica produces several valuable compounds from a wide range of substrates. Appointed by some authors as an industrial workhorse, Y. lipolytica has an extraordinary ability to use unrefined and complex low-cost substrates as carbon and nitrogen sources, aiding to reduce the waste surplus and to produce added-value compounds in a cost-effective way. Dozens of review papers regarding Y. lipolytica have been published till now, proving the interest that this yeast arouses in the scientific community. However, most of them are focused on metabolic pathways involved in substrates assimilation and product formation, or the development of synthetic biology tools in order to obtain engineered strains for biotechnological applications. This paper provides an exhaustive and up-to-date revision on the application of Y. lipolytica to valorize liquid effluents and solid wastes and its role in developing cleaner biotechnological approaches, aiming to boost the circular economy. Firstly, a general overview about Y. lipolytica is introduced, describing its intrinsic features and biotechnological applications. Then, an extensive survey of the literature regarding the assimilation of oily wastes (waste cooking oils, oil cakes and olive mill wastewaters), animal fat wastes, hydrocarbons-rich effluents, crude glycerol and agro-food wastes by Y. lipolytica strains will be discussed. This is the first article that brings together the environmental issue of all such residues and their valorization as feedstock for valuable compounds production by Y. lipolytica. Finally, it will demonstrate the potential of this non-conventional yeast to be used as a biorefinery platform.

Keywords:

• Yarrowia lipolytica
• oily wastes
• hydrocarbons-rich effluents
• crude glycerol
• oil cakes
• agro-food wastes
• added-value compounds

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the project TUBITAK 2014 [TUBITAK/0009/2014], the strategic funding of UIDB/04469/2020 unit, Doctoral grants [SFRH/BD/144188/2019; SFRH/BD/139098/2018; SFRH/BD/129592/2017] 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.