Journal of Bioremediation & Biodegradation
Open Access

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biopolyesters produced by different bacterial species as energy storage; with respect to common bioplastics they have thermo-mechanical properties similar to those of traditional plastics, that make them potential alternatives to plastics in the future. Nowadays, PHAs production is limited by high production costs due to the use of pure cultures and standard substrates. To reduce these costs, agro-industrial wastes have been started to be used as substrate to feed mixed microbial cultures (MMC). In Lombardy Region (North Italy) about 3.3 million Mg of cheese whey (data of 2013) are produced yearly, that is about 36% of total Italian production and the 2.75% of the global production. Cheese whey, being largely and continuously produced and easily available, could be an interesting substrate for PHAs production to sustain the high demand of plastics of the market. In this work two fermented cheese whey (FCW) were used to produce PHAs by using MMC. PHA accumulation given for fermented FCW1 a PHA yield (Ytot) of 0.24�±0.02 mg CODPHA mg CODSoluble Substrate(SS) -1 and a total PHA production, referred to the substrate used, of 60 g PHA kgcheese whey total solids (TS)-1. For fermented FCW2 results were: PHA yield (Ytot) of 0.42�±0.03 mg CODPHA mg CODSS -1 and PHA from substrate of 70 g PHA kgcheese whey TS-1. Qualitatively, PHA from FCW1 was composed exclusively by polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) contrarily to those obtained from FCW2 that were composed for 40% of hydroxyvalerate and for 60% of hydroxybutyrate.

Biography

Email: bianca.colombo@unimi.it