Microbial polyhydroxybutyrate production by using cheap raw materials as substrates

Abstract

Bioplastic, Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is well known for it’s environmental friendliness and complete decomposition into water and carbon dioxide by microorganisms. The main drawback of PHB commercialization is it’s high production cost which is 10 times higher than that of synthetic plastic. So, the present research work mainly focussed on the fermentative production of PHB by Bacillus amyloliquifaciens and Nocardiopsis potens using low cost raw materials like Molasses, wheat bran, rice bran, ragi bran, jambul seed powder, orange peel and whey as substrates. Bacillus amyloliquifaciens and Nocardiopsis potens gives maximum PHB 16.5 µg/ ml and 26.8 µg/ ml respectively in the medium containing molasses and wheat bran as a substrates. Further the functional groups of extracted PHB were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.