Olive oil wastewater as a renewable resource for production of polyhydroxyalkanoates

The use of OMEs (as well as of other agro-industrial wastes) makes itpossible to easily obtain PHA copolymers of HB and HV monomers,resulting in a polymer with better physicochemical properties. The HB/HV ratio can be controlled by manipulating the relevant parameters ofeach stage of the process and, particularly, the acids composition from thefermentation stage. Ongoing research is mainly aimed at finding an optimaltradeoff between the high process performance (in terms of rate andyield of PHA production) and the PHA composition and properties fordownstream processing. Process optimization at a higher scale and capacityis required to increase the potential for industrial application.© 2012 Scrivener Publishing LLC.