Despite known metabolic versatility of Burkholderia spp., sugar metabolism and end-product synthesis patterns in Burkholderia thailandensis have been poorly characterized. This work has demonstrated that B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlucose and xylose are fermentable sugars readily available from lignocellulosic biomass, and are a sustainable carbon substrate supporting industrial biotechnology. Three strains were assessed in this work - Paraburkholderia sacchari, Hydrogenophaga pseudoflava, and Bacillus megaterium - for their ability to uptake both C and C sugars contained in a hardwood hydrolysate produced via a thermomechanical pulping-based process with concomitant production of poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA) biopolymers. In batch conditions, B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedium chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHA) were produced by LS46 cultured with a variety of carbohydrate and fatty acid substrates. The monomer compositions and molecular weights of the polymers varied greatly and was dependent on whether the substrate was metabolized via the fatty acid degradation or the fatty acid synthesis pathways. The highest molecular weights were obtained from medium chain-length fatty acids, whereas low molecular weights were obtained from longer chain-length and more unsaturated fatty acids or carbohydrates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe rheology of high-cell density (HCD) cultures is an important parameter for its impact on mixing and sparging, process scale-up, and downstream unit operations in bioprocess development. In this work, time-dependent rheological properties of HCD LS46 cultures were monitored for microbial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production. As the cell density of the fed-batch cultivation increased (0 to 25 g·L cell dry mass, CDM), the apparent viscosity increased nearly nine-fold throughout the fed-batch process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHigh cell density (HCD) fed-batch cultures are widely perceived as a requisite for high-productivity polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) cultivation processes. In this work, a reactive pulse feed strategy (based on real-time CO or dissolved oxygen (DO) measurements as feedback variables) was used to control an oxygen-limited fed-batch process for improved productivity of medium chain length (mcl-) PHAs synthesized by LS46. Despite the onset of oxygen limitation half-way through the process (14 h post inoculation), 28.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPolymers (Basel)
October 2018
Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are promising biodegradable polymers that may alleviate some of the environmental burden of petroleum-derived polymers. The requirements for carbon substrates and energy for bioreactor operations are major factors contributing to the high production costs and environmental impact of PHAs. Improving the process productivity is an important aspect of cost reduction, which has been attempted using a variety of fed-batch, continuous, and semi-continuous bioreactor systems, with variable results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWorld J Microbiol Biotechnol
July 2018
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a diverse class of bio-polymers synthesized by bacteria, usually during imbalanced growth conditions. Optimizing PHA productivity is highly dependent on the bioreactor oxygen transfer rate (OTR), which is an important consideration for process performance and economics, particularly with increasing scale. Relatively few in-depth studies are available regarding the effect of OTR and dissolved oxygen content (DOC) on PHA formation, synthesis rates, composition, and characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEconomical production of medium-chain length polyhydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHA) is dependent on efficient cultivation processes. This work describes growth and mcl-PHA synthesis characteristics of Pseudomonas putida LS46 when grown on medium-chain length fatty acids (octanoic acid) and lower-cost long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs, derived from hydrolyzed canola oil) in microaerophilic environments. Growth on octanoic acid ceased when the oxygen uptake rate was limited by the oxygen transfer rate, and mcl-PHA accumulated to 61.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Clostridium termitidis CT1112 is an anaerobic, Gram-positive, mesophilic, spore-forming, cellulolytic bacterium, originally isolated from the gut of a wood feeding termite Nasusitermes lujae. It has the ability to hydrolyze both cellulose and hemicellulose, and ferment the degradation products to acetate, formate, ethanol, lactate, H2, and CO2. It is therefore ges in gene and gene product expression during growth of C.
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