Production of copolymer, poly (hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) by Halomonas campisalis MCM B-1027 using agro-wastes.

For cost effective production of PHA, agro-wastes like fruit peels, bagasse and deoiled cakes were screened as a sole source of carbon. Halomonas campisalis MCM B-1027, which was isolated from one of the extreme environment, i.e. Lonar Lake, India, was explored for the production of PHA using fruit peels and bagasse having fermentable sugars. Among the agro-wastes tested, 1% (v/v) aqueous extract of bagasse was found to be the optimum carbon source with 47% PHA production on dry cell weight basis. Significant amount of total sugars are utilized and converted into cell mass and PHA, e.g. 62% sugar utilized from bagasse extract, 84% from orange peel extract and 71% from banana peel extract as compared to 51% in case of maltose. Hence the cost of production would be positively reduced. The detailed characterization of PHA formed by H. campisalis using bagasse extract as sole carbon source revealed that the organism produces a copolymer of PHB-co-PHV (94.4:5.6) having molecular weight M(w) 1.394 × 10(6) and melting temperature 168.9 °C. Production of PHA by H. campisalis using aqueous extract of fruit peels and a copolymer PHB-co-PHV using aqueous extract of bagasse is presumably the first report.