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Algae Biomass Based Media for Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) Production by Escherichia coli

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Abstract

In addition to biodiesel production from algae, the production of other valuable bioproducts facilitates the development of an algae-based biorefinery platform. The goal of this study was to utilize the aqueous fraction from a novel algal wet lipid extraction procedure as the medium for the production of a bio product, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), via the growth of recombinant Escherichia coli. PHB yield was measured at 34 % of the E. coli dry cell mass, and was increased to 51 % when the algae aqueous medium was supplemented with glucose. While the addition of inorganic nutrients to the aqueous phase did not increase PHB production or growth of E. coli, growth of E. coli was observed to increase with the supplementation of carbon substrate (glucose). The addition of carbon rich waste to the aqueous fraction of wastewater-derived algae may in the future provide a sustainable alternative. Future research will be directed at evaluating this concept to develop a sustainable process for the production of bioplastics through an algae-based biorefinery platform.

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Acknowledgments

Research presented in this paper was supported through the USU Sustainable Waste to Bioproducts Engineering Center (Ron Sims, PI), the USU Synthetic Biomanufacturing Institute (Scott Hinton, PI), the City of Logan Environmental Department (Issa Hamud, Director), and the Utah Water Research Laboratory (Mac Mckee, Director). The authors would also like to acknowledge Asif Rahman for providing the recombinant E. coli used in this study and Jason Brown and Dong Chen for their assistance and expertise during this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Engineering, Utah State University, 4105 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322-4105, USA

    Ashik Sathish, Katherine Glaittli, Ronald C. Sims & Charles D. Miller

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  1. Ashik Sathish
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  2. Katherine Glaittli
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  3. Ronald C. Sims
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  4. Charles D. Miller
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Correspondence to Charles D. Miller.

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Sathish, A., Glaittli, K., Sims, R.C. et al. Algae Biomass Based Media for Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) Production by Escherichia coli . J Polym Environ 22, 272–277 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-014-0647-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-014-0647-x

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