Reader TTS

University of Pune researcher claims 'asperigillus', a fungus found in mangroves is a possible alternative to traditional fuel With rising inflation, there is a worldwide research

being conducted to find alternatives for traditional fuel. Mahesh Khot, a researcher from the Institute of Bio-informatics and Biotechnology (IBB) at University of Pune has found an oil

storing fungus from the mangrove wetlands of the Indian West coast. As per the claims of the research, the single cell oleaginous fungi identified as ‘aspergillus terreus ‘ is a potential

source of bio-diesel and even helpful for agriculture waste such as sugarcane bagasse, grape stock, groundnut shells. Khot is doing his PhD in ‘Microbial oils as raw material for bio-diesel’

at the IBB. Khot said, “My area of research is microbes as these are potential feedstock of production of biofuel and can accumulate oil. There are major microbial species like bacteria,

fungi and yeasts which can accumulate oil in them.” “While doing research, I found some fungus from the mangrove wetlands in forests of the western coast and found it grows on waste rapidly

and has potential of accumulating oil properties. During testing, it was found that the single cell fungi called aspergillus terreus can accumulate oil up to 55 per cent,” said Khot. Khot

then brought the soil samples which had the fungi to the laboratory and with the help of chemical process, extracted the oil  and converted into fuel. “We followed three International

standards from United State, United Kingdom and European Union and checked whether the fuel which was extracted from the fungi falls in the bio-diesel category. In all three tests, the fuel

passed,” added Khot. He said he found that the fungus grows rapidly on bagasse. “The fungus can help address the issue of agriculture waste besides its use as a bio-diesel. Now moving ahead,

the focus of the research will be to check ways to produce bio-diesel on a large scale,” said Prof Ameeta RaviKumar, head of IBB department. Khot added jatropa has been the potential

candidate for bio-diesel, however it requires a lot of land and water and so the biotechnologists felt an urgent need of alternative options.