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Conversion of post consumer polyethylene to the biodegradable polymer polyhydroxyalkanoate

  • Environmental biotechnology
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Abstract

A process for the conversion of post consumer (agricultural) polyethylene (PE) waste to the biodegradable polymer medium chain length polyhydroxyalkanoate (mcl-PHA) is reported here. The thermal treatment of PE in the absence of air (pyrolysis) generated a complex mixture of low molecular weight paraffins with carbon chain lengths from C8 to C32 (PE pyrolysis wax). Several bacterial strains were able to grow and produce PHA from this PE pyrolysis wax. The addition of biosurfactant (rhamnolipids) allowed for greater bacterial growth and PHA accumulation of the tested strains. Some strains were only capable of growth and PHA accumulation in the presence of the biosurfactant. Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO-1 accumulated the highest level of PHA with almost 25 % of the cell dry weight as PHA when supplied with the PE pyrolysis wax in the presence of rhamnolipids. The change of nitrogen source from ammonium chloride to ammonium nitrate resulted in faster bacterial growth and the earlier onset of PHA accumulation. To our knowledge, this is the first report where PE is used as a starting material for production of a biodegradable polymer.

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Acknowledgements

This project has been funded under a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency of Ireland (grant number 2008-ET-LS1). JNR is partially funded by Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia Project No. 173048.

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Author notes

  1. Jasmina Nikodinovic-Runic

    Present address: Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Vojvode Stepe 444a, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences, University College Dublin, Ardmore House, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Maciej W. Guzik, Shane T. Kenny, Jasmina Nikodinovic-Runic & Kevin E. O’Connor

  2. Bioplastech Limited, NovaUCD, Belfield Innovation Park, UCD, Dublin, Ireland

    Maciej W. Guzik, Shane T. Kenny & Kevin E. O’Connor

  3. School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, Engineering and Materials Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Gearoid F. Duane & Eoin Casey

  4. School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Trevor Woods & Ramesh P. Babu

  5. Centre for Research, Adoptive Nano Structures and Nanodevices, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland

    Ramesh P. Babu

  6. Cynar PLC, Euston Fitzrovia, 85 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 4TQ, UK

    Michael Murray

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  1. Maciej W. Guzik
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Correspondence to Kevin E. O’Connor.

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Guzik, M.W., Kenny, S.T., Duane, G.F. et al. Conversion of post consumer polyethylene to the biodegradable polymer polyhydroxyalkanoate. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 98, 4223–4232 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-5489-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-013-5489-2

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