Nadeem Ibraheem Hussien Elhussieny

• This study investigated the potential of fungal biomass as industrial catalyst through developing an alternative catalyst for biodiesel production using fungal biomasses for whole-cell catalysis. The research explored various fungal isolates and identified the most potent isolates. The transesterification catalytic capability of the selected isolates was improved through random genetic mutagenesis and optimization of the cultivation conditions of the chosen mutants. Aspergillus flavus and Rhizopus stolonifer two fungal species belong to two different phyla (Ascomycota and Zygomycota) revealed the capability of their biomasses to catalyze the transesterification reaction efficiently up to 95.5 %, in relatively short reaction time (24 h.). The biomass produced was also capable of catalyzing the transesterification reaction using different acyl-acceptors. A. flavus and R. stolonifer biomasses proved the probability of using biomasses cocktails to catalyze transesterification reaction. In addition, the fungal biomass investigated exhibited considerable ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of triglycerides, which means an opportunity of producing multifunctional catalytic fungal biomass. A. flavus showed a potential to be implemented in biorefinery processes that include wastewater treatment by microalgae as part of a circular economy approach, where A. flavus biomass produced in a biorefinery approach was effectively capable of catalyzing the modification of lipids.