Citric Acid Production by Yarrowia lipolytica Yeast on Different Renewable Raw Materials

The world market of citric acid (CA) is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the biotechnological industry. Microbiological processes for CA production have usually used the mycelial fungi Aspergillus niger as a producer and molasses as a carbon source. In this paper, we propose methods for CA production from renewable carbon substrates (rapeseed oil, glucose, glycerol, ethanol, glycerol-containing waste of biodiesel industry and glucose-containing aspen waste) by the mutant strain Yarrowia lipolytica NG40/UV5. It was revealed that Y. lipolytica grew and synthesized CA using all tested raw materials. The obtained results are sufficient for industrial use of most of the raw materials studied for CA production. Using rapeseed oil, ethanol and raw glycerol (which is an important feedstock of biodiesel production), a high CA production (100–140 g L−1) was achieved.