Fatty alcohols are important feedstocks in the chemical industry to produce detergents, cosmetics and lubricants. Microbial production of fatty alcohols has become an attractive alternative to production in plants and animals due to growing energy demands and environmental concerns. However, inhibition of cell growth caused by intracellular fatty alcohol accumulation is one major issue that limits fatty alcohol titers in microbial hosts. In addition, identification of fatty alcohol-specific exporters remains a challenge and previous studies towards this end are limited. To alleviate the toxicity issue, we exploited nonionic surfactants to promote the export of fatty alcohols in Rhodosporidum toruloides, an oleaginous yeast that is considered an attractive next-generation host for the production of fatty acid-derived chemicals. Our results showed fatty alcohol export efficiency was dramatically improved and the growth inhibition was alleviated in the presence of small amounts of tergitol and other surfactants. As a result, fatty alcohol titers increase by 4.3-fold at bench scale to 352.6 mg/L. With further process optimization in a 2-L bioreactor, the titer was further increased to 1.6 g/L. The method we show here can potentially be applied to other microbial hosts and may facilitate the commercialization of microbial fatty alcohol production. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.,This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.