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Characterization of polyhydroxybutyrate biosynthesized from crude glycerol waste using mixed microbial consortia
Author(s) -
Hu Shengjun,
McDonald Armando Gabriel,
Coats Erik Robert
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.38820
Subject(s) - polyhydroxybutyrate , crystallization , hydrolysis , glycerol , biodegradation , materials science , poly 3 hydroxybutyrate , nuclear chemistry , chemistry , substrate (aquarium) , chemical engineering , food science , organic chemistry , bacteria , biochemistry , biology , ecology , genetics , engineering
This study focused on the characterization of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) produced from crude glycerol (CG) using mixed microbial consortia (MMC). PHB recovered from two biomass drying treatments (65°C oven drying and lyophilization) was characterized comparatively along with a commercially sourced PHB (PHB‐C). Characterization results showed that oven‐drying method caused PHB partial hydrolysis, as indicated by its lower molecular weight ( M w ) (PHB‐O, 144,000 g mol −1 ), which further affected its physical and chemical properties. Lyophilization helped alleviate PHB hydrolysis during drying process, leading to PHB (PHB‐L) of higher M w (309,000 g mol −1 ) and material properties comparable with commercial PHB. Furthermore, crystallization and morphological studies showed that PHB‐L featured faster crystallization rates and smaller spherulites as compared with PHB‐C, probably due to its lower M w . In general, the results from this study suggested that CG‐MMC‐derived PHB‐L possessed material properties comparable with those of pure substrate/culture produced PHB. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013