Abstract
Petroleum reserves of the world may not last forever. There is a need to develop alternative and renewable sources of petroleum. Petrocrops (wild and waste plants) are renewable sources of petroleum hydrocarbons. Calotropis procera is one of the potential candidates for petrofarming. The latex obtained from C. procera may be hydrocracked to obtain hydrocarbons. This involves severe thermochemical conditions. Biodegradation of latex may afford a milder and less energy-intensive technique of latex degradation. In the present work, the latex obtained from C. procera has been subjected to microbial treatment using different fungi and bacteria. The biotransformed and biodegraded latex showed enhancement in the heptane extraction in comparison to that of untreated latex. The biotransformed and biodegraded latex was subjected to 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and FTIR spectral analysis. The latex was found to have undergone demethylation, dehydrogenation, carboxylation, and aromatization during microbial treatment. Average molecular weight of the latex compounds was found to have decreased as a result of microbial treatment. The biotransformed and biodegraded latex may be hydrotreated to obtain petroleum and other value-added chemicals and cleaner fuels.
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