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Production of Poly (3-Hydroxybutyric Acid) by Ralstonia eutropha in a Biocalorimeter and its Thermokinetic Studies

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Abstract

Bioplastic production from microbial sources is an emerging area which provides opportunities even to convert the wastes into bioplastics. Poly (3-hydroxybutyric acid), commonly called as PHB, is a bioplastic, which is stored as intracellular cytoplasmic inclusions in microorganisms. The objectives of this study are to calorimetrically monitor the PHB production and evaluate the thermokinetic data in a bioreaction calorimeter (BioRC1e). Thus, a well-known PHB-producing bacteria Ralstonia eutropha was selected for batch process in a bioreaction calorimeter. The metabolic heat generated was found to be correlated with the biomass, substrate consumption, oxygen uptake rate (OUR), carbon dioxide evolution rate (CER) and PHB production. The OUR pattern explained the oxidative metabolism of the strain R. eutropha. The heat yields due to biomass and glucose consumption during PHB production were found to be 12.56 and 13.56 kJ/g, respectively. The oxycalorific value obtained for the PHB production was 443.80 kJ/mol of O2. The concentration of PHB obtained in BioRC1e was 4.33 g/L with a production rate of 0.09 g/L/h. The chemical structure of the extracted PHB by R. eutropha was confirmed using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis.

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Abbreviations

A :

Heat transfer area (m2)

DO:

Dissolved oxygen

PHB:

Poly (3-hydroxybutyric acid)

Q :

Heat generated (kJ)

Q met (t):

Cumulative metabolic heat (kJ)

OUR:

Oxygen uptake rate (W)

q :

Heat evolution rate (W)

q a :

Heat of acid or base addition (W)

q ac :

Heat accumulation in the bulk (W)

q bl :

Baseline heat (W)

q CO2 :

Heat of CO2 vaporization (W)

q e :

Heat loss to the environment (W)

q f :

Heat loss or gain from the feed (W)

q g :

Heat loss due to aeration (W)

q j :

Heat transfer through the reactor wall to the jacket oil (W)

q s :

Heat input due to stirring (W)

q r :

Heat generated by the reaction (W)

T j :

Temperature of jacket oil (°C)

T r :

Temperature of reactor contents (°C)

U :

Overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)

Y Q/X :

Heat yield coefficient with respect to biomass (kJ/g)

Y X/S :

Biomass yield coefficient with respect to substrate

Y Q/O :

Heat generated due to oxygen consumed (kJ/mol of O2)

Y Q/S :

Heat yield due to substrate consumption (kJ/g)

O:

Oxygen

S:

Substrate

X:

Biomass

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Acknowledgements

One of the authors (Anusha SM) wishes to acknowledge the CSIR, New Delhi, for the CSIR-GATE fellowship and generous research grants. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Prof. NR Rajagopal for encouragement. This work was carried out with the funding from CSIR-Network project SETCA CSC 0113.

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  1. Chemical Engineering Department, Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Adyar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Subramanian Mohanakrishnan Anusha, Santharam Leelaram & Mahadevan Surianarayanan

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  1. Subramanian Mohanakrishnan Anusha
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Correspondence to Mahadevan Surianarayanan.

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Anusha, S.M., Leelaram, S. & Surianarayanan, M. Production of Poly (3-Hydroxybutyric Acid) by Ralstonia eutropha in a Biocalorimeter and its Thermokinetic Studies. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 179, 1041–1059 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-016-2049-0

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