Production of polyhydroxybutyrate by Bacillus species isolated from municipal activated sludge

Plastic wastes are considered to be severe environmental contaminants causi ng waste disposal problems. Widespread use of biodegradable plastics is one of the solutions, but it is limited by high production cost. Biologic wast ewater treatment generates large quantities of biomass as activated sludge. Only a few reports focus on the potential of utilizing resident Bacillus s pecies from activated sludge in polyhydroxbutyrate (PHB) production as well as the production of PHB from food wastes. They have attractive properties such as short generation time, absence of endotoxins, and secretion of bot h amylases and proteinases that can well utilize food wastes for nutrients, which can further reduce the cost of production of polyhydroxyalkanoates ( PHAs). Two PHA-producing strains, HF-1 and HF-2, were isolated from activat ed sludge. HF-1 outperformed HF-2 in terms of growth and PHB production in hydrolyzed soy and malt wastes. The isolated bacteria was characterized by DNA sequence alignment. Cell extracts of HF-1 were also compared to Bacillu s megaterium cell extracts on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel ele ctrophoresis. The biopolymers accumulated were analyzed by gas chromatograp hy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and Fourier transform infrared methods.