Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems, 2015, 5, 114-125 Published Online September 2015 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/jsbs http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jsbs.2015.53011 How to cite this paper: Amirsadeghi, M., Shields-Menard, S., French, W.T. and Hernandez, R. (2015) Lipid Production by Rhodotorula glutinis from Pulp and Paper Wastewater for Biodiesel Production. Journal of Sustainable Bioenergy Systems, 5, 114-125. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jsbs.2015.53011 Lipid Production by Rhodotorula glutinis from Pulp and Paper Wastewater for Biodiesel Production Marta Amirsadeghi 1 , Sara Shields-Menard 2 , W. Todd French 1* , Rafael Hernandez 3 1 Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, USA 2 Department of Biological Science, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, USA 3 College of Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA Email: * French@che.msstate.edu Received 17 August 2015; accepted 22 September 2015; published 25 September 2015 Copyright © 2015 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract This study investigated the potential of oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula glutinis utilizing pulp and paper wastewater effluents as cultivation media for the sustainable production of microbial lipids as biodiesel feedstock. R. glutinis is oleaginous yeast, which has the ability to produce significant quantities of intercellular lipids in the form of triacylglycerols. Yeast lipids are a promising poten- tial feedstock for biodiesel production due to similar fatty acid composition to plant oils. The ef- fect of various carbon sources on biomass production, lipid accumulation, substrate utilization, and fatty acid composition using R. glutinis in the pulp and paper wastewater media was studied. The pulp and paper wastewater was supplemented with glucose, xylose, and glycerol as carbon sources under nitrogen-limited conditions. The maximum lipid productions of 1.3 - 2.9 g∙L −1 , which corresponded to the intracellular lipid contents of 8% - 15% cell dry weight (CDW), were obtained under various carbon substrates. A kinetic study of the batch fermentation was per- formed in a 3 L aerobic batch fermenter to describe the cell growth, lipid accumulation, and sub- strate utilization process, and the kinetic parameter was estimated. The fatty acid profile of olea- ginous yeast was rich in palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acids and comparable to vegetable oils. Thus, the results of this study indicated that pulp and paper wastewater could be used to produce lipids as biodiesel feedstock. Keywords Biofuels, Lipid Production, Biodiesel Feedstock, Rhodotorula glutinis, Pulp and Paper Wastewater * Corresponding author.