Strain improvement of an endophytic fungal spp. for biodiesel production

Abstract

The Aspergillus niger JGK – 12 was subjected to mutation through physical and chemical methods (UV and EMS), and after treatment, the putative survived cultures were subjected to quantitative production of biomass and total lipid yield. Compared to control culture of Aspergillus niger JGK-12, UV treated mutant showed little enhancement in dry biomass content and total lipid production, whereas the EMS treated culture did not produce high biomass and lipid contents. The isolated lipids were then subjected to purification in which case, neutral lipids were found to be the major components accounting up to 85% of the total lipids, which infers that Aspergillus niger JGK – 12 could be a good microbial source for biodiesel production. The fractionated lipids were subjected to alkaline transesterfication to produce biodiesel, which are mainly composed of fatty acid methyl esters and the compositions were found to be similar to that of regular biodiesel from plant origin. The biodiesel were further analyzed by GC-MS, HPTLC, ¹H NMR, C¹³ NMR and FTIR techniques to confirm their purity and quality. Hence, with all the research findings, it can be concluded that Aspergillus niger JGK – 12 can be treated as a promising feedstock for biodiesel production in the future.