Abstract
Due to oil shortage and environmental problems, synthetic plastics have to be replaced by different biodegradable materials. A promising alternative could be polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), and the low-cost abundant agricultural starchy by-products could be usefully converted into PHAs by properly selected and/or developed microbes. Among the widely available starchy waste streams, a variety of residues have been explored as substrates, such as broken, discolored, unripe rice and white or purple sweet potato waste. Cupriavidus necator DSM 545, a well-known producer of PHAs, was adopted in a simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) process through an optimized dosage of the commercial amylases cocktail STARGEN™ 002. Broken rice was found to be the most promising carbon source with PHAs levels of up to 5.18 g/L. This research demonstrates that rice and sweet potato waste are low-cost feedstocks for PHAs production, paving the way for the processing of other starchy materials into bioplastics.
Highlights
Environmental problems regarding plastic pollution have increased in the last few years [1].In Europe alone, which is the second-largest producer of fossil plastic in the world after China, its production reached 61.8 million tons in 2018 [2]
In order to overcome economic and environmental problems linked to plastic pollution, the research focused on the production of innovative bio-based materials such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) [4,5,6]
The chemical composition reveals an amount of ash and cellulose higher than that of rice substrates, but less than 8% of protein
Summary
Environmental problems regarding plastic pollution have increased in the last few years [1].In Europe alone, which is the second-largest producer of fossil plastic in the world after China, its production reached 61.8 million tons in 2018 [2]. The bulk of plastic pollution is concentrated in the oceans [3], as demonstrated by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean For these reasons, in order to overcome economic and environmental problems linked to plastic pollution, the research focused on the production of innovative bio-based materials such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) [4,5,6]. PHAs are a family of eco-friendly polyesters which differ in their properties on the basis of their chemical composition [7,8,9] Since they are thermoplastic, completely biodegradable and eco-compatible, they could be potential candidates for applications in the medical field [10], and in packaging materials [11,12] and agriculture [13]. Traditional methods for PHAs production involve the use of expensive
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