Animal fat and glycerol bioconversion to polyhydroxyalkanoate by produced water bacteria

Abstract

Oil reservoirs contain large amounts of hydrocarbon rich produced water, trapped in underground channels. Focus of this study was isolation of PHA producers from produced water concomitant with optimization of production using animal fat and glycerol as carbon source. Bacterial strains were identified as Bacillus subtilis (PWA), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PWC), Bacillus tequilensis (PWF), and Bacillus safensis (PWG) based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Similar amounts of PHA were obtained using animal fat and glycerol in comparison to glucose. After 24 h, high PHA production on glycerol and animal fat was shown by strain PWC (5.2 g/ L, 6.9 g/ L) and strain PWF (12.4 g/ L, 14.2 g/ L) among all test strains. FTIR analysis of PHA showed 3-hydroxybutyrate units. The capability to produce PHA in the strains was corroborated by PhaC synthase gene sequencing. Focus of future studies can be the use of lipids and glycerol on industrial scale.

Keywords

• bacillus tequilensis
• fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
• pseudomonas aeruginosa
• polyhydroxyalkanoates (pha)
• 16s rrna sequencing