Waste paper as a resource for polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production through anaerobic digestion is a low-cost strategy to produce bioplastic. In this study, volatile fatty acids (VFAs) produced from waste paper, one of the significant constituents of municipal solid waste, was utilized as a feedstock for polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production. PHA production from synthetic VFAs by Cupriavidus necator was initially optimized under different VFAs concentrations, VFAs ratios, and nitrogen sources. VFAs concentration of 10 g/L, 5:1:4 ratio of acetic, propionic, and butyric acids (HAc:HPr:HBu) and NaNO3 as nitrogen source were considered the optimum conditions with 56.98% PHA and 0.31 g/g yield. Anaerobic digestion of shredded office paper (OP/S) produced the maximum VFAs (521.50 mg/L) after 15 days of incubation and were utilized for PHA synthesis. Almost 2.24-fold increase in the yield of PHA was achieved with limited nutrient medium compared to nutrient contained medium with a PHA content of 53.50 and 23.88%, respectively. PHA production using anaerobic effluent of waste paper is a promising approach where a series of pretreatment processes, the expensive enzymatic hydrolysis, and detoxification were no longer required, suggesting an environmentally friendly way of biopolymer production.
CITATION STYLE
Al Battashi, H., Al-Kindi, S., Gupta, V. K., & Sivakumar, N. (2021). Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Production Using Volatile Fatty Acids Derived from the Anaerobic Digestion of Waste Paper. Journal of Polymers and the Environment, 29(1), 250–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-020-01870-0
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