Chitwadee PhithakrotchanakoonVerawat ChampredaSei ichi AibaKusol PootanakitSutipa TanapongpipatMahidol UniversityThailand National Center for Genetic Engineering and BiotechnologyNational Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology2018-11-232018-11-232015-01-01Journal of Polymers and the Environment. Vol.23, No.1 (2015), 38-44156625432-s2.0-84924222152https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/36016© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York. The high production cost of bio-based plastic polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) limits their use as commercial products. Thus, systems for PHAs production from waste substrates could reduce production costs. Crude glycerol is a by-product of biodiesel fuel production and thus represents an inexpensive, abundant and promising carbon source for production of valorized fermentation products. In this study, industrial crude glycerol by-product from palm oil biodiesel production was used as the carbon source for production of PHAs by recombinant Escherichia coli. Crude glycerol supplemented at 1–5 % (v/v) supported production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P(3HB)) in E. coli-ABC<inf>Ah</inf>, which harbors the PHA synthetic genes for β-ketothiolase (PhaA<inf>Re</inf>), acetoacetyl-CoA reductase (PhaB<inf>Re</inf>) of Ralstonia eutropha and Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase (PhaC<inf>Ah</inf>) of Aeromonas hydrophila. The highest P(3HB) content and productivity of 14 wt% of cell dry weight and 0.6 g/L, respectively, were obtained at 1 % (v/v) glycerol concentration. Production of P(3HB-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (P(3HB-co-3HHx)) was achieved using E. coli-ABC<inf>Ah</inf>J<inf>Ah</inf>, harboring genes for PhaA<inf>Re</inf>, PhaB<inf>Re</inf>, PhaC<inf>Ah</inf>, and the (R)-specific enoyl-CoA hydratase (PhaJ<inf>Ah</inf>) of A. hydrophila. This led to the copolymer content of 3 wt% of cell dry weight with 1 mol% of 3HHx. Molecular weight and degradation temperature of the polymers were in the range of 110–130 kDa and 295–299 °C, respectively. These results indicated that crude glycerol could be an attractive carbon source for economical production of PHAs with properties for industrial application.Mahidol UniversityEnvironmental ScienceMaterials ScienceArticleSCOPUS10.1007/s10924-014-0681-8