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Language: English

Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received August 23, 2013
Accepted September 26, 2013

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates by Ralstonia eutropha from volatile fatty acids

Jung Hyun Yun Shailesh S. Sawant Beom Soo Kim^†

Department of Chemical Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Chungbuk 361-763, Korea

bskim@chungbuk.ac.kr

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, December 2013, 30(12), 2223-2227(5), 10.1007/s11814-013-0190-9

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Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastics that can be synthesized in various microorganisms. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are produced by anaerobic treatment of organic wastes that can be utilized as inexpensive substrates for PHA synthesis. In this study, several Ralstonia eutropha strains were grown on the mixture of VFAs (acetic, propionic, and butyric acid) as its carbon and energy source for growth and PHA synthesis. R. eutropha KCTC 2658 accumulated PHAs up to 50% of dry cell weight from total 5 g/L of mixed_x000D_ VFAs (acetic acid : propionic acid : butyric acid=1 : 2 : 2). In batch culture of R. eutropha KCTC2658 in a 5 L fermentor, a homopolymer of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB)] was produced from 20 g/L glucose as a sole carbon source with dry cell weight of 8.4 g/L and PHA content of 30%. In fed-batch culture, two feeding strategies, pulse or pH-stat, were applied to add VFAs to the fermentor. When VFAs were fed using pH-stat feeding strategy after 40 h, a copolymer of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) [P(3HB-co-3HV)] was produced with dry cell weight of 8.1 g/L, PHA content of 50%, and 3HV fraction of 20 mol%.

Keywords

Polyhydroxyalkanoates PHA Ralstonia eutropha Volatile Fatty Acids

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