Abstract
Sludge from municipal wastewater treatment systems can be used as a source of mixed microbial cultures for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). Stored intracellularly, the PHA is accumulated by some species of bacteria as energy stockpile and can be extracted from the cells by reflux extraction. Dimethyl carbonate was tested as a solvent for the PHA extraction at different extraction times and biomass to solvent ratios, and 1-butanol was tested for purifying the obtained PHA at different purification times and PHA to solvent ratios. Overall, only a very small difference was observed in the different extraction scenarios. An average extraction amount of 30.7 ± 1.6 g of PHA per 100 g of biomass was achieved. After purification with 1-butanol, a visual difference was observed in the PHA between the tested scenarios, although the actual purity of the resulting samples did not present a significant difference. The overall purity increased from 91.2 ± 0.1% to 98.0 ± 0.1%.
Highlights
The constant search for environmentally-friendly alternatives for fossil-based materials has been backed up lately by an increase of research in the field of bioplastics such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs)
PHAs are biodegradable polymers synthesized by a variety of bacteria in intracellular granules that serve as energy storage [1,2]
The PHA was extracted from the biomass via reflux by adding 25 mL of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as a solvent to different amounts of biomass in a round-bottom flask connected to a cooling column
Summary
The constant search for environmentally-friendly alternatives for fossil-based materials has been backed up lately by an increase of research in the field of bioplastics such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). VFAs have been shown to be an interesting and very feasible feedstock in the PHA production process by both pure and mixed microbial cultures [7]. The non-halogenated solvent dimethyl carbonate performs better than a range of such as diethyl carbonate, propylene carbonate and ethyl acetate and itmuch achieved satisfactory yields solvents as diethyl carbonate and ethyl acetate and it achieved of PHA such recovery whencarbonate, comparedpropylene to dichloromethane [27,28]. DMC was chosen as the solvent for PHA extraction in the present chloroform and dichloromethane [30]. Some studies made a parallel in between these techniques, showing that, even though different PHA product. The aim was to optimize a green extraction and purification of PHA from a mixed microbial culture, using dimethyl carbonate and 1-butanol, respectively. The biomass to solvent ratio or PHA to solvent ratio and the extraction or purification time were the parameters to be optimized
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