Exploiting Cheese Whey for Efficient Selection of Polyhydroxyalkanoates-Storing Bacteria

Agroindustrial by-products hold an enormous potential to be bioconverted into high-value-added products such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a cost-effective alternative conventional plastics. In this study, cheese whey, highly abundant side stream of the making process, was explored feasible substrate for selection mixed culture enriched in PHA-storing bacteria using sequencing batch reactor under aerobic dynamic feeding regime. For that, absence/presence thiourea, magnesium and iron, well application two different organic loading rates (OLR), i.e., 60 80 CmM d−1, were tested. The results showed improved when iron added medium highest OLR applied. Under these conditions, biomass achieved maximum PHA storage 54% production rate 4.81 Cmmol-PHA L−1 h−1. Additionally, study microbial community that during period productivity, Azoarcus Amaricoccus bacterial species. Conclusively, whey can considered good feedstock efficiently select with high accumulate way give by-product value.