Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production of Bacillus Megaterium in coconut (Cocos Nucifera) water substrate

Date

2019

Adviser

Ruby Lynn Ventura

Abstract

Plastics are one of the most useful materials due to its wide range application in different fields. However, the sustainability of polymers continues to be a concern because of the environmental issues that are attached to its production and application. Biopolymer is visualized as a possible replacement for synthetic polymers to address this concern. Polyhydroxyalkanoates PHA) are biopolymers that are similar to synthetic polymers but exhibit high biodegradability rate and biocompatibility. The study examined the PHA production of Bacillus megaterium PNCM 1890 using coconut water (CW) as substrate by investigating the residual reducing sugar concentration (RSC), dry cell weight yield (DCW), and PHA yield in different treatments. The collected CW samples were subjected to differential freezing and the sample with the highest reducing sugar concentration after several thawing periods was used to prepare different treatments. Raw and supplemented coconut water treatments were sterilized using two techniques (autoclaving and filter sterilization). The prepared samples were subjected to fermentation for 48 h and sampling was performed every 24 h. Analytical methods were used to determine the SC, DCW yield and PHA yield of each treatment. Results showed that DCW yield (0.2330+0.0023 g DCW/ g initial RSC) and PHA yield (0.1427+0.0033 g PHA/g initial RSC) of filter sterilized adjusted CW was significantly (5% level of significance) higher compared to other treatments after 24 h. Furthermore, filter sterilized adjusted CW (0.1743+0.0159 g DCW/ g initial RSC) exhibited comparable DCW yield to standard glucose (0.1522=0.0065 g DCW/ g initial RSC) ) and significantly higher PHA yield (0.1148+0.0053 g PHA/g initial RSC) among all the treatments after 48 h. This suggests that CW can be a potential alternative carbon source for fermentation. Further studies in component replacing could be conducted to optimize the fermentation conditions for higher PHA yield from CW.

Language

English

LC Subject

Capstone

Location

University of the Philippines Rural High School

Document Type

Capstone

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