Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production from urban biowaste mixture at pilot scale

The aim of this work is to give a practical example of a possible integration of organic waste management and wastewater treatment through a multi-step process for biowaste conversion into biopolymer, more specifically Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). A further valorization of the overflows via anaerobic digestion is also proposed, but still at preliminary stage. Due to their thermoplastic properties and biodegradability, PHA are considered one of the most promising biopolymers to replace part of the synthetic materials. Unfortunately the high production cost, due to the utilization of pure cultures and refined media as substrate, strongly limited the PHA market viability. However, many evidences of the effective use of waste organic feedstock are reported in the literature with yields comparable than those obtained by pure substrates; and besides the use of biowaste, the development of cost-effective fermentation strategies is decisive for the economic feasibility of microbial PHA production processes.