Amphiphilic Pentablock Copolymers Prepared from Pluronic and ε-Caprolactone by Enzymatic Ring Opening Polymerization.

Amphiphilic copolymers are appealing materials because of their interesting architecture and tunable properties. In view of their application in the biomedical field, the preparation of these materials should avoid the use of toxic compounds as catalysts. Therefore, enzymatic catalysis is a suitable alternative to common synthetic routes.

Continuous production of poly([R]-3-hydroxybutyrate) by Cupriavidus necator in a multistage bioreactor cascade.

Poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs) constitute biodegradable polyesters and are considered among the most promising candidates to replace common petrochemical plastics in various applications. To date, all commercial processes for PHA production employ microbial discontinuous fed-batch fermentations. These processes feature drawbacks such as varying product quality and the inevitable periods of downtime for preparation and post-treatment of the bioreactor equipment.

Polyhydroxyalkanoate production from whey by Pseudomonas hydrogenovora.

Whey permeate from dairy industry was hydrolyzed enzymatically to cleave its main carbon source, lactose, to glucose and galactose. The hydrolysis products were chosen as carbon sources for the production of poly-3-hydroxybutyric acid (PHB) by Pseudomonas hydrogenovora. In shaking flask experiments, the utilization of whey permeate as a cheap substrate was compared to the utilization of pure glucose and galactose for bacterial growth under balanced conditions as well as for the production of PHB under nitrogen limitation.

Bio-based polymeric composites comprising wood flour as filler.

The increasing effort on development of bio-based polymeric materials in recent years is motivated by the basic concept of meeting the sustainability criteria for industrial development in the third millennium. Within this framework, our research group is currently involved in assessing the potentiality of some agro-industrial overproduction and byproducts in the formulation of eco-compatible bio-based polymeric materials displaying, among others, the propensity to biodegrade under controlled environment conditions. In the present work, beech wood flour (Bwf) composites were prepared from plasticized poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB).