One-pot treatment of Saccharophagus degradans for polyhydroxyalkanoate production from brown seaweed

The conventional production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) from waste biomass requires a pretreatment step (acid or alkali) for reducing sugar extraction, followed by bacterial fermentation. This study aims to find a greener approach for PHA production from brown seaweed. Saccharophagus degradans can be a promising bacterium for simultaneous reducing sugar and PHA production, bypassing the need for a pretreatment step. Cell retention cultures of S. degradans in membrane bioreactor resulted in approximately 4-and 3-fold higher PHA concentrations than batch cultures using glucose and seaweed as carbon sources, respectively. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance results revealed identical peaks for the resulting PHA and standard poly(3-hydroxybutyrate). The developed one step process using cell retention culture of S. degradans could be a beneficial process for scalable and sustainable PHA production.

Automated summary

The traditional production process of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) from waste biomass requires a pretreatment step for sugar extraction and bacterial fermentation. This study explores a greener approach for PHA production from brown seaweed using Saccharophagus degradans. Cell retention cultures of S. degradans resulted in significantly higher PHA concentrations compared to batch cultures, indicating the potential for scalable and sustainable PHA production.