Abstract
The utilization of inexpensive carbon sources, including waste streams, for production of value added products has been explored for over two decades. Palm oil mill effluent (POME), a waste water stream from the palm oil industry, can be used to produce organic acids and their salts by anaerobic digestion. These organic acids are suitable as the main carbon source for growth and production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) by organisms like Ralstonia eutropha. The presence of propionate/propionic acid results in the biosynthesis of the copolymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) [P(HB-co-HV)], which is desired for its favourable thermal and mechanical properties compared to the polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) homopolymer. A specially-designed fed-batch strategy is necessary to decrease the toxic effects of organic acids in cultures of R. eutropha. A pH-stat fed-batch culture technique, using organic acids as the main carbon source, was adopted in combination with an additional pO(2)-dependent feed for delivering organic acid salts. The developed strategy is highly reproducible and shows a high productivity of >2 g PHA/L/h. After 44h of fermentation, 112.4 +/- 2.3 g/L cell dry weight (CDW) with 83.3 +/- 1.1% P(HB-co-HV)/CDW containing 5.6 +/- 0.4 mol% 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) were achieved. The described productivity, CDW and P(HB-co-HV)/CDW values are by far the highest reported results for R. eutropha cultivated on mixed organic acids as the main carbon source. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.