Exploring strain OM81 for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) bioplastic using olive mill wastewater.

Unlabelled: In this study, bacterial strains isolated from olive oil mill wastewater assigned to ( = 4) and ( = 1) genera, were evaluated for their ability to accumulate intracellular PHA granules using Sudan Black staining. A maximum PHA production of 0.14 g/L (i.e., 30.2% wt./wt. in dry biomass) was observed in strain OM81 after 72 h of incubation in the presence of 2% glucose (synthetic medium). To reduce bioplastic production costs and recover a polluting product, olive mill wastewater was tested as a carbon source. In this context, the maximum growth (1.45 g/L) was observed in the presence of 50% olive mill wastewater. After extracting the biopolymers with chloroform, quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). FTIR showed an absorption band at 1730 cm assigned to the elongation of the PHB carbonyl groups. This approach offers a dual benefit of reducing pollution and bioplastic production costs. The strain OM81 showed promising results for PHAs production, making it a potential candidate for further investigation.

Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-023-03808-4.