Production of technical-grade sodium citrate from glycerol-containing biodiesel waste by Yarrowia lipolytica

The production of technical-grade sodium citrate from the glycerol-containing biodiesel waste by Yarrowia lipolytica was studied. Batch experiments showed that citrate was actively produced within 144 h, then citrate formation decreased presumably due to inhibition of enzymes involved in this process. In contrast, when the method of repeated batch cultivation was used, the formation of citrate continued for more than 500 h. In this case, the final concentration of citrate in the culture liquid reached 79-82 g/L. Trisodium citrate was isolated from the culture liquid filtrate by the addition of a small amount of NaOH, so that the pH of the filtrate increased to 7-8. This simple and economic isolation procedure gave the yield of crude preparation containing trisodium citrate 5.5-hydrate up to 82-86%.