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Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES), extraction

Abstract

As the world shifts away from oil-based products, certain essentials like plastics and detergents remain integral to our modern way of life. One promising approach involves harnessing cell factories, such as specific bacterial and yeast strains, which naturally produce biopolymers akin to conventional  plastics. In this context, mixed microbial cultures (MMC) show great promise as they do not require sterile conditions as opposed to pure bacterial cultures (Mondal et al., 2023). The biopolymers produced by MMC have garnered industrial interest due to their dual attributes of biodegradability and biocompatibility, offering potential replacements for some oil-derived plastics, particularly in consumer goods and medical applications.

In this study a downstream process to extract and purify the polyhydroxy(butyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) produced by MMC is presented. Traditional extraction and purification of PHBV relies on energy intensive cell disruption techniques and toxic solvents such as chloroform (Patrice Didion et al., 2023).  Here an optimized and effective alternative process using hydrophobic natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) is presented and evaluated, with an emphasis on recycling the solvents that were applied. At the optimized extraction conditions, PHBV yields of 84.7 ± 2.6 wt% at purities ≈ 95 wt% were  achieved, while all the applied solvents were recovered and recycled. This result is approaching yields achieved with organic solvents and the hope is that this work will contribute to the more wide-scale introduction of PHBV as a cost effective, environmentally friendly and biodegradable alternative to  oil-derived plastics (Didion et al., 2024).

Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation within the framework of the Fermentation-based Biomanufacturing Initiative (FBM), grant number: NNF17SA0031362.

References

  • Didion, Y. P., Vargas, M. V. G. A., Tjaslma, T. G., Woodley, J., Nikel, P. I., Malankowska, M., Su, Z., & Pinelo, M. (2024). A novel strategy for extraction of intracellular poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) from engineered Pseudomonas putida using deep eutectic solvents: Comparison with traditional biobased organic solvents. Separation and Purification https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SEPPUR.2024.126465 Technology, 338, 126465.
  • Mondal, S., Syed, U. T., Gil, C., Hilliou, L., Duque, A. F., Reis, M. A. M., & Brazinha, C. (2023). A novel sustainable PHA downstream method. Green Chemistry, 25(3), 1137–1149. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2GC04261D
  • Patrice Didion, Y., Gijsbert Tjalsma, T., Su, Z., Malankowska, M., & Pinelo, M. (2023). What is next? the greener future of solid liquid extraction of biobased compounds: Novel techniques and solvents overpower traditional ones. Separation and Purification Technology, 124147. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SEPPUR.2023.124147