Economic and environmental bottlenecks in the industrial-scale production of lipid-derived biofuels from oleaginous yeasts: A review of the current trends and future prospects

Concerns about climate change and the reliance on fossil fuel reserves have motivated researchers to identify new renewable sources of energy. Biomass holds the potential to replace fossil-derived products with biofuels and bio-based chemicals. Plant-derived lipids are promising sources of biofuels; however, the production of plant oil often leads to the release of massive amounts of carbon dioxide due to deforestation and land-use change. The production of biofuels via plant oils (such as soybean) also competes with food production and in turn, impacts biodiversity. To mitigate these issues, the production of lipids from oleaginous yeasts could be an excellent alternative by incorporating these microbes into biorefineries utilizing agricultural or forest residues. Eventually, these microbial lipids could be potential sources for producing lipid-derived biofuels. However, the current conventional methods for the production and recovery of lipids from oleaginous microbes suffer from economic and ecological challenges that affect its industrial-scale expansion. This review highlights the major economic and environmental bottlenecks for the production of lipid-derived biofuels from oleaginous yeasts. It also provides perspectives on the strategies that could be adapted on economic and ecological fronts to assist the expansion of the production of microbial lipid-derived biofuels at an industrial scale.