title: Improved detergent-based recovery of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs).
abstract: Extracting polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) polymer from bacterial cells often involves harsh conditions, including use of environmentally harmful solvents. We evaluated different detergents under various conditions to extract PHA from Ralstonia eutropha and Escherichia coli cells. Most detergents tested recovered highly pure PHA polymer from cells in amounts that depended on the percentage of polymer present in the cell. Detergents such as linear alkylbenzene sulfonic acid (LAS-99) produced a high yield of high purity polymer, and less detergent was needed compared to the amount of SDS to produce comparable yields. LAS-99 also has the advantage of being biodegradable and environmentally safe. Chemical extraction of PHA with detergents could potentially minimize or eliminate the need to use harsh organic solvents, thus making industrial PHA production a cleaner technology process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbial Engineering, College of Engineering, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yung-Hun
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brigham
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Willis
authors.forename: ChoKyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rha
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sinskey
mesh_terms: D005591:Chemical Fractionation / Q000379:methods*; D020118:Cupriavidus necator / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D003902:Detergents / Q000737:chemistry*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D054813:Polyhydroxyalkanoates / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D003902:Detergents; D054813:Polyhydroxyalkanoates