Utilization of palm oil mill effluent and clindamycin for optimization of polyhydroxy [r] alkanoates production

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are storage granules of most bacteria which can be used as biodegradable plastics but the production cost of PHA is twice than petrochemical based synthetic polymers because of substrate cost. The use of alternative renewable and cheap carbon sources are the best option, one such is palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME contains carbon source like volatile fatty acids and other organic components which can be utilised by microorganisms to accumulate PHA. The use of subinhibitory concentration of antibiotics like clindamycin may have an influence on PHA accumulation. In this study, 31 organisms were isolated from POME spillage area and subjected to PHA production. Seven organisms were found to accumulate PHA, which was confirmed by Nile blue staining method, the accumulated PHA was extracted and characterized using HPLC. All the organisms were found to produced poly hydroxy butyrate (PHB). Amongst all the seven isolates, two organisms namely Bacillus sp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were found to accumulate more PHA. Both the organisms were subjected to produce PHA in POME and clindamycin containing media. PHA production condition was optimized using RSM.