Production of biodegradable polymers (PHA) through low cost carbon sources: Green Chemistry (original) (raw)

2013, International Journal of Chemical and Environmental Engineering (IJCEE)

The presence of PHA is discovered by biologists since 1925. The existence of lipid granules in the cytoplasm of some bacterial cells was described by the French scientist Lemoigne. In the 1960s, scientists were interested in novel plastics have become aware of the PHAs, and social and economic forces have supported research in the area. PHAs are biodegradable plastics. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are used as an energy and carbon storage compound within certain bacterial cells. The industry is looking into replacing the plastics, which are not biodegradable, with PHAs because they are biodegradable polymers despite the current plastics. These are biopolymers, which can replace petrochemical plastics in many applications. However, these bioplastics are more expensive right now than petrochemical plastics for example one of the cheap sources for producing PHA without filtration is waste frying oil. Small-scale batch fermentation studies have been set up, using different concentrations of pure vegetable oil, heated vegetable oil and waste frying oil. A feed of waste frying oil could thus achieve more biopolymer than pure vegetable oil. The collection of waste fryi ng oil is becoming more widespread, making waste oil a good alternative to purified oil or glucose for PHA production Some microbial strains are used to produce PHA. An optimized process design will minimize waste streams and energy losses through recycling.

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