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DOI: 10.4172/2157-7463.1000272

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ISSN: 2157-7463

Review Article Open Access

Need for Bioplastics and Role of Biopolymer PHB: A Short Review

Bharti SN* and Swetha G
Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India

Abstract
PHB, a biodegradable polymer that can be synthesized by bacterial systems under certain conditions or as a
biosynthetic product, which has significant characters as that of synthetic polymers while being eco-friendly. The
key for research lies in its properties like biodegradable, durable, temperature resistant, non- pollution causing
polymer. This simple human friendly polymer belongs to a huge class of biopolymers by PHA, stands for Poly
hydroxy Butarates, well known for their physico-chemical properties as natural polymers.
It’s high time, needful now to protect natural environment and depend the minimum on non renewable resources.
In this context, Synthetic plastics stand in the top- occupying the major non-recyclable, non biodegradable material
on the planet. Many polymers in nature can meet these demands, research in this regard with the target to replace
the petroleum plastics with natural, biodegradable, recyclable plastics. Of all, family of PHA has gained attention with
its characteristic features and competitive as that of synthetic plastics. This short review focuses on few process
parameters, use of better and cheap substrate possible, challenges in process development for commercialization
of bioplastic production.

Keywords: Biodegradable polymer; Synthetic polymer; Recyclable carbon. When the cells are subjected to nutrient stress by using excess
plastic carbon with a deficient nutrient, synthesis of PHB occurs in cells. It
clearly indicates that carbon and few chemical sources like phosphate,
Abbrevations: PHA: Poly Hydroxy Alkanoate; PHB: Poly Hydroxy iron, magnesium, oxygen are controlling factors for PHB production.
Butarate Other fermentation parameters like pH, temperature are physical
factors that affect PHB production. There are different polymers that
Introduction are being extensively studied for substituting synthetic plastic with
Bioplastics are defined as polymers of biomass mainly carbon biodegradable plastic. Few of them are polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs),
based compounds. The major environment concern these days is polylactide (PLA), poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL), poly (p-dioxanone)
increasing non degradable waste on planet and replenishing reserves (PPDO) and poly (butylene succinate) (PBS). Of all, PHAs have
of non renewable fossil fuels. The major environment concerns gained significance for their properties and feasibility. Remarkable
behind extensive synthetic plastics usage are its biodegradability, and investigation is underway in order to drift down the high production
production of toxins while its degradation. Therefore there is an absolute costs. Several things have been taken into consideration. They can be
of need for “eco-friendly” plastics. PHA’s, the class of Alkanoates,
-Developing recombinant strains
closely resemble synthetic plastics which make them as good alternate.
These are most studied Bioplastics. They get accumulated in microbes -Improving the fermentation process
as storage materials under certain conditions. These polymers can be
-Betterment in downstream processing steps
extracted and can be easily moulded.
-Improving product recovery steps
PHB is Poly hydroxy butarate belongs to family of Poly hydorxy
alkanoates is class of bio polymers. Their properties resemble that These are few handling techniques by which production cost can be
of synthetic plastics however the most attracting property of them substantially brought down.
is production and degradation which is contradictory to synthetic
plastics. Since decades plastics being more commercial manufacturing Further in the production cost there has the remarkable decrease is
polymer, got accumulated on planet raising a serious question of by using inexpensive carbon source as substrate. Different fermentable
degradation, recycling cost. Also non renewable carbon sources like substrates can be used for different microbial strains.
fossil fuels, petroleum being the starting material for production, With the advancement of recombinant DNA technology,
serious crisis of non renewable resources is seen in near future. Plastic engineered species are preferred for industrial bioplastic production.
has become a part of everyday life due to their properties like flexibility,
strength, versatile, easily tailored into thin films to huge containers,
durable. But in the environment it is creating unsolved problems like *
Corresponding author: Suraj Narayan Bharti, Lovely Professional University,
pollution and waste. Punjab, India, Tel: +918102243931; E-mail: [email protected]

The drawback lies in overcoming the high production cost for Receive February 21, 2015; Accepted February 28, 2016; Published March 05,
Bioplastics. Research shows that this can be overcome by using natural 2016
substrates and production procedures rather going for complex ones. Citation: Bharti SN, Swetha G (2016) Need for Bioplastics and Role of Biopolymer
Many microbes under stress conditions produce additional substances PHB: A Short Review. J Pet Environ Biotechnol 7: 272. doi:10.4172/2157-
7463.1000272
and they get accumulated as storage materials in their cells.
Copyright: © 2016 Bharti SN, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under
Efficient use of microbial accumulates the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
For the organisms that can store PHB, is a primary assimilated source are credited.

J Pet Environ Biotechnol

ISSN: 2157-7463 JPEB, an open access journal Volume 7 • Issue 2 • 1000272
Citation: Bharti SN, Swetha G (2016) Need for Bioplastics and Role of Biopolymer PHB: A Short Review. J Pet Environ Biotechnol 7: 272.
doi:10.4172/2157-7463.1000272

Page 2 of 3

Few inexpensive substrates well investigated so far are Sugar cane Methylobacterium rhodesianum, M. Extorquen, P. Putida, Sphaerotilus
molasses, corn syrup, corn steep liquor (also in combination), starch natans.
based products, paperwaste, Acid hydrolysed malt waste, diary whey
There are two kinds of bacteria. The bacterium that produces
[1].
polymer under nutrient deficient condition comes under one group.
Material and Methods The bacterium that produces polymer along with growth in the media [4].

PHB production Media, growth conditions, fermentation

PHB belongs to class of PHA, polyesters of hydroxy alkonates. Of all the different types of bacteria each one of them uses different
They accumulate as monomer inclusions in microbial cells. This often kinds and different combinations of media source. Few examples for
occurs in both gram positive and gram negative bacteria under nutrient such combinations of carbon, nitrogen sources are methanol as carbon
imbalance condition. The cells store granules of polymer. The amount source, malate, acetic acid and n-alkanoic acid, Ammonium chloride,
of polymer accumulation depends on the microorganism. ammonium sulphate as nitrogen sources.
Properties of PHB [2]. Media and media conditions play vital role for production of
polymers. All the important factors carbon, nitrogen sources, pH,
• PHB ecofriendly, biodegradable.
temperature, pressure, media flow rate, oxygen supply (based on the
• It can be decomposed into water and CO2 by microorganisms process aerobic and anaerobic choosen) [5].
• They are chain of 14 monomeric units. Cheap sources of media include molasses, cornsteep liquor, wheat
• Molecular weight varies from 2-3×103 kDa. This again depends bran, starch. Choosing a cheap source of media plays a major role in
on capacity of microorganism to store the produced polymer. makes the production economical. Activated sludge and co-culturing
systems are also known to be profitable based on the inoculum strains
• Can be a good substitute for synthetic plastic used [6].
• Can be produced from non replenishing sources
Product recovery
Poly hydroxy alkanoates can be further classified into different
After production the next crucial step in down streaming processing
monomers based on the carbon chain attached. Short Length (contain
which should be taken care of for profitable PHB production is product
5 carbon PHA units), Medium Length (contain 6-14 carbon PHA
recovery. Wide variety of methods are preferred for recovery of product
units), Long Length (contain more than 14 carbon PHA) [3] (Figure 1).
like solvent extraction, enzymatic digestion, dispersion. Methods like
Production of PHA’s- PHB centrifugation, filtration are applied with a subsequent use of solvents
for extraction and product isolation.
Many species of bacillus are known to produce PHB. The
most studied are Alcaligenes eutrophus, Bacillus megaterium, Bacterial systems- individual bacteria producing PHB’s can be

Figure 1: Carbon cycle of Bioplastics.

J Pet Environ Biotechnol

ISSN: 2157-7463 JPEB, an open access journal Volume 7 • Issue 2 • 1000272
Citation: Bharti SN, Swetha G (2016) Need for Bioplastics and Role of Biopolymer PHB: A Short Review. J Pet Environ Biotechnol 7: 272.
doi:10.4172/2157-7463.1000272

Page 3 of 3

used for profitable yield or recombinant bacteria can be utilized. The References
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J Pet Environ Biotechnol

ISSN: 2157-7463 JPEB, an open access journal Volume 7 • Issue 2 • 1000272