Successful conversion of corn stover into microbial lipids at high solids loading by <i>Rhodosporidium toruloides</i> at pilot scale

Qitian Huang; Rasool Kamal; Hongbin Lu; Junlu Zhang; Jingyi Song; Liting Lyu; Haizhao Xue; Hao Song; Zongbao K. Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.jobab.2025.10.002

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Qitian Huang, Rasool Kamal, Hongbin Lu, Junlu Zhang, Jingyi Song, Liting Lyu, Haizhao Xue, Hao Song, Zongbao K. Zhao. Successful conversion of corn stover into microbial lipids at high solids loading by Rhodosporidium toruloides at pilot scale[J]. Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, 2026, 11(1): 100222. doi: 10.1016/j.jobab.2025.10.002

Citation:

Qitian Huang, Rasool Kamal, Hongbin Lu, Junlu Zhang, Jingyi Song, Liting Lyu, Haizhao Xue, Hao Song, Zongbao K. Zhao. Successful conversion of corn stover into microbial lipids at high solids loading by Rhodosporidium toruloides at pilot scale[J]. Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, 2026, 11(1): 100222. doi: 10.1016/j.jobab.2025.10.002

Citation:

Qitian Huang, Rasool Kamal, Hongbin Lu, Junlu Zhang, Jingyi Song, Liting Lyu, Haizhao Xue, Hao Song, Zongbao K. Zhao. Successful conversion of corn stover into microbial lipids at high solids loading by Rhodosporidium toruloides at pilot scale[J]. Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, 2026, 11(1): 100222. doi: 10.1016/j.jobab.2025.10.002

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Successful conversion of corn stover into microbial lipids at high solids loading by Rhodosporidium toruloides at pilot scale

doi: 10.1016/j.jobab.2025.10.002

a.
Laboratory of Biotechnology, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, 116023, China
b.
MOE Key Laboratory of Bio-Intelligent Manufacturing, School of Bioengineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China
c.
College of Life and Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail address: zhaozb@dlut.edu.cn (Z.K. Zhao)
Received Date: 2025-06-03
Accepted Date: 2025-09-10
Rev Recd Date: 2025-08-25

Available Online: 2015-10-14

Publish Date: 2026-02-01

Abstract

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) offers potential feedstocks for biofuels. As it generally involves processes including pretreatment, hydrolysis, and fermentation, LCB-based biorefinery at higher solids loading may improve substrate concentration and reduce operational costs, yet its scaling-up remains a challenge. Here, efficient conversion of corn stover (CS) at high solids loading into microbial lipids was demonstrated in a 1 000 L pilot-scale bioreactor using Rhodosporidium toruloides CGMCC 2.1389. The process employed lab-optimized conditions, including alkaline storage pretreatment of CS (AS-CS) with 6% NaOH for over 60 d at room temperature. The AS-CS (100 kg) was steamed in the 1 000 L bioreactor at 121 ℃ for 1 h at a solids loading of 20%, followed by subsequent removal of alkaline black liquor (ABL) using squeeze technology. The leftover residues were hydrolyzed by enzymes with a total reducing sugar (TRS) recovery of 93.6%. The lipid production in the 1 000 L bioreactor resulted in a lipid titer of 10.6 g/L and a yield of 0.194 g/g (based on consumed TRS). The mass flow analysis suggested that 89.6% of cellulose and 95.5% of hemicelluloses were released to produce lipids with little lignin by-products, avoiding their toxic effects on lipid production. The developed process in this work offers a promising avenue for industrial conversion of LCB into microbial lipids.
- Microbial lipids,
- Corn stover,
- Alkaline storage pretreatment,
- Pilot-scale,
- Rhodosporidium toruloides

Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Supplementary materials
Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.jobab.2025.10.002.
^✩ Peer review under the responsibility of Editorial Office of Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts.

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