In this study, crude glycerol from various industries was used to produce lipids via wild type Yarrowia lipolytica A101. We tested samples without any prior purification from five different waste products; each contained various concentrations of glycerol (42-87%) as the sole carbon source. The best results for lipid production were obtained for medium containing glycerol from fat saponification. This reached 1.69 g L (1) (25% of total cell dry weight) with a biomass yield of 0.17 g g (1) in the flasks experiment. The batch cultivation in a bioreactor resulted in enhanced lipid production-it achieved 4.72 g L (1) with a biomass yield 0.21 g g (1). Moreover, the properly selected batch of crude glycerol provides a defined fatty acid composition. In summary, this paper shows that crude glycerol from soap production could be efficiently converted to single cell oil without any prior purification. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.