Bioprocess design of a PHB production plant

Premi UAB de la Fundació Autònoma Solidària (FAS) als millors Treballs de Fi de Grau sobre desenvolupament sostenible i justícia global. 3a Edició, curs 2018/2019During the last century we have created a plastic dependent lifestyle, consuming each year an increasingly quantity of it, leading to severe environmental issues. Over 270 million tons of plastic residues were generated in 2017. Plastic not only is a nondegradable material, but it also comes from petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource which reserves are shrinking day by day, so an alternative had to be proposed. There are many biological substitutes for plastic, from which polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) has been chosen for this project due to their especially suitable properties and wide and well-developed production. PHB is a biodegradable and renewable polymer with plastic properties, commonly produced by many bacteria species under specific conditions as a carbon storage. It can be synthesized from a wide variety of substrates ranging from pure glucose to many organic residues. Using residues as substrate constitutes a necessary strategy in order to achieve a profitable bioprocess in a very competitive scenario. Cheese whey residue has been the one proposed in this project, as it is an abundant residue from dairy industry and it has become a serious environmental problem over the years for its high organic load. To summarise, this project aims at producing PHB using whey residue as substrate, thus helping with two environmental concerns while trying to make profit at the same time