Incorporating Corn Oil Refining Wastewater Improves Lipid Accumulation And Self-Settling Property Of Trichosporon Fermentans In Corn Starch Wastewater

Corn starch wastewater (CSW) and corn oil refining wastewater (CORW) produced by corn processing industry can be used as substrates for oleaginous yeasts, but the problem of separating yeasts from wastewaters hinders industrial applications of the technology. A method for morphological analysis of mycelia based on thermogravimetric analysis was established in this work, and it was found that most of the Trichosporon fermentans in CSW showed mycelium form and exhibited undesirable self-settling property. When equivalent CORW was incorporated to CSW, hypha formation was inhibited, and the yeasts could be settled quickly. Trichosporon fermentans could achieve better wastewater treatment and produce 2.88 times more of lipids in the wastewater consisted of equivalent CSW and CORW than in CSW. This study contributes a new way to treat wastewater from corn processing industry, and is helpful for industrial application of wastewater treatment technology using oleaginous yeasts.