METHOD FOR PRODUCING POLYHYDROXYALKANOATES (PHA) FROM ORGANIC WASTE

• Main Authors: Williamson, Michael James, Yu, Luna, Forattini Lemos Igreja, Marcos, de Alwis Weerasekera, Hasitha, Sanjay Soman, Sudhanshu, Sankar, Vani, Chow, Kaitlyn
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 04.07.2019
• Subjects: APPARATUS FOR ENZYMOLOGY OR MICROBIOLOGY; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; ENZYMOLOGY; FERMENTATION OR ENZYME-USING PROCESSES TO SYNTHESISE A DESIREDCHEMICAL COMPOUND OR COMPOSITION OR TO SEPARATE OPTICAL ISOMERSFROM A RACEMIC MIXTURE; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; SPIRITS; VINEGAR; WINE

According to one broad aspect of this disclosure, a method is provided for producing polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from organic waste. The method comprises homogenizing organic waste to obtain a feedstock that has 1:1 to 3:1 (w/w) water to organic waste ratio. The feedstock is inoculated with an inoculum of acidogenic fermentative bacteria in order to obtain an inoculated feedstock. The inoculated feedstock is incubated for 5 to 10 days, 3 to 10 days, optionally 7 days, optionally 3 days, to obtain a fermentation broth. The fermentation broth comprises volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and undigested organic waste. The fermentation broth is filtered with a filter with a pore size ranging from 0.2 μm to 500,000 NMWC to remove the acidogenic fermentative bacteria and undigested organic waste, to obtain a clarified broth comprising concentrated VFAs. The clarified broth and high-PHA producing bacteria are incubated to produce intracellular PHA granules in the high-PHA producing bacteria. PHA polymers are extracted from the intracellular PHA granules.