Utilization of palm oil and palm oil effluent as a carbon source for the production of polyhydroxybutyrate co-polyhydroxyhexanoate P(HB-co-HHx) a biopolymer in bacillus sp

BACKGROUND: Biodegradable polymers are gaining a reputation as demand is increasing globally. Amongst these Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are attracting market attention as a consequence of their properties similar to those of conventional plastics. PHA is a natural polyester that is stored as an intracellular carbon (C) energy reserve of bacteria. This biopolymer can be extracted and used in place of petrochemical plastic. Medium chain-length (mcl) PHA, specifically poly hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyhexanoate P (HB-co-HHx) copolymer produced by Bacillus, has gained practical attention owing to its superior physicochemical properties compared to the commonly synthesized PHB homopolymer. Co-polymer production is dependent on C sources provided in the growth medium. In the present study we have employed palm oil and palm oil effluent as C source. RESULTS: In the current study, it was observed that a significant amount of PHA and biomass was produced when the effluent was prepared at a concentration of 100% instead of water for preparing the growth medium. The production of biomass and PHA showed a range of 4.8–8and 1.5–4 g L⁻¹, respectively. This means that the PHA yield obtained using the effluent was 50–80% of the control, whereas the control yielded only 40–50%. CONCLUSION: Palm industry waste can be used as a substrate in bioprocessing industries. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of PHA obtained herein indicates that it consists of the mcl polymer P (HB-co-HHx).