On-Line Control of Feast/Famine Cycles to Improve PHB Accumulation during Cultivation of Mixed Microbial Cultures in Sequential Batch Reactors

Francisco Cabrera, Álvaro Torres-Aravena, Fernanda Pinto-Ibieta, José Luis Campos and David Jeison
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Francisco Cabrera: Instituto de Ciencias Químicas Aplicadas, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Avenida Alemania 01090, Temuco 4810101, Chile
Álvaro Torres-Aravena: Escuela de Ingeniería Bioquímica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Av. Brasil 2085, Valparaíso 2362803, Chile
Fernanda Pinto-Ibieta: Department of Chemical Engineering, Universidad de La Frontera, Av. Francisco Salazar 01145, Temuco 4811230, Chile
José Luis Campos: Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Avda. Padre Hurtado 750, Viña del Mar 2562340, Chile
David Jeison: Escuela de Ingeniería Bioquímica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Av. Brasil 2085, Valparaíso 2362803, Chile

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-9

Abstract: Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) has generated great interest as building blocks for bioplastic production. Their production using mixed microbial cultures represents an interesting alternative, since it enables the use of organic wastes as a carbon source. Feast/famine strategy is a common way to promote selection of microorganisms with PHA accumulation capacity. However, when using waste sources, changes in substrate concentration are expected, that may affect performance and efficiency of the process. This study showed how the dissolved oxygen level can be used for online control of the cycle time, ensuring that the desired feast/famine ratio is effectively applied. An operation strategy is presented and validated, using sequential batch reactors fed with acetate as the carbon source. Production of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) was studied, which is the expected type of PHA to be synthetized when using acetate as substrate. Two reactors were operated by applying the proposed control strategy, to provide F/F ratios of 0.2 and 0.6, respectively. A third reactor was operated with a fixed cycle time, for comparison purposes. Results showed that the reactor that operated at an F/F ratio of 0.6 promoted higher biomass productivity and PHB content, as a result of a better use of available time, preventing unnecessary long famine times. The application of the tested strategy is a simple a reliable way to promote a better performance of feast/famine-based bioreactors involving mixed microbial cultures for PHB production.

Keywords: PHB; bioplastics; SBR; dissolved oxygen; feast; famine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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