“Recovery and subsequent characterization of polyhydroxybutyrate from Rhodococcus equi cells grown on crude palm kernel oil”

Publication date: Available online 25 December 2015 Source:Journal of Taibah University for Science Author(s): Nadia Altaee, Ayad Fahdil, Emad Yousif, kumar Sudesh The gram positive bacteria Rhodococcus equi was isolated from fertile soil and used the mineral salts media (MM) and trace elements to provide the necessary elements for its growth and PHB production in addition to using crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) 1% as carbon source. The gas chromatography (GC) was proved the composition of recovered biopolymer that was homopolymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). The strain of the present study gave 1.43 (g/l) as dry biomass yielding 38% of PHB when determined by GC. The recovered PHB was characterized by NMR to study the chemical structure. Also, DSC and TGA were used to study the thermal properties of the recovered polymer, where the melting temperature (T m) was 173°C, glass transition temperature (Tg) was 2.79°C and decomposition temperature (T d) was 276°C. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) was used to study the molecular mass of the recovered PHB in addition to compare the results with other studies using differ bacteria and substrates, where the molecular weight was 642 KDa so that the possible using it in many applications. The present study demonstrated the use of an inexpensive substrate for PHB production by gram positive bacteriafor production of PHB polymer with characterizing.

Source: Journal of Taibah University for Science - December 25, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: research