Bioconversion Process of Polyethylene from Waste Tetra Pak<sup>®</sup> Packaging to Polyhydroxyalkanoates

oleh: Itohowo Ekere, Brian Johnston, Fideline Tchuenbou-Magaia, David Townrow, Szymon Wojciechowski, Adam Marek, Jan Zawadiak, Khadar Duale, Magdalena Zieba, Wanda Sikorska, Grazyna Adamus, Tomasz Goslar, Marek Kowalczuk, Iza Radecka

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-07-01

Deskripsi

Presented herein are the results of a novel recycling method for waste Tetra Pak<sup>®</sup> packaging materials. The polyethylene (PE-T) component of this packaging material, obtained via a separation process using a “solvents method”, was used as a carbon source for the biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) by the bacterial strain <i>Cupriavidus necator</i> H16. Bacteria were grown for 48–72 h, at 30 °C, in TSB (nitrogen-rich) or BSM (nitrogen-limited) media supplemented with PE-T. Growth was monitored by viable counting. It was demonstrated that <i>C. necator</i> utilised PE-T in both growth media, but was only able to accumulate 40% <i>w/w</i> PHA in TSB supplemented with PE-T. Only 1.5% <i>w/w</i> PHA was accumulated in the TSB control, and no PHA was detected in the BSM control. Extracted biopolymers were characterised by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The characterisation of PHA by ESI-MS/MS revealed that PHA produced by <i>C. necator</i> in TSB supplemented with PE-T contained 3-hydroxybutyrate, 3-hydroxyvalerate, and 3-hydroxyhexanoate co-monomeric units. AMS analysis also confirmed the presence of 96.73% modern carbon and 3.27% old carbon in PHA derived from Tetra Pak<sup>®</sup>. Thus, this study demonstrates the feasibility of our proposed recycling method for waste Tetra Pak<sup>®</sup> packaging materials, alongside its potential for producing value-added PHA, and the ability of 14C analysis in validating this bioconversion process.