Structural assessment of the bioplastic (poly-3-hydroxybutyrate) produced by Bacillus flexus Azu-A2 through cheese whey valorization.

The demand for the production of biodegradable plastics has significantly increased. Bioplastics have become an essential alternative to the threats of the daily consumable plastics, sourced from fossil fuels, to the environment. Polyhydroxyalkonates (PHAs) are a ubiquitous group of bioderived and biodegradable plastics, however their production is limited by the costs associated mainly with the carbon sources. Herein, this study aims to reduce the PHAs production cost by using a by-product from the dairy industry, i.e., cheese whey (CW), as a sole carbon source. The developed process recruits an aquatic isolate, Bacillus flexus Azu-A2, and is optimized via studying various parameters using the shaking flasks technique. The results showed that the maximum PHA production (0.95 g L) and PHA content (20.96%, w/w), were obtained after incubation period 72 h at 45 °C, 100 rpm agitation rate, 50% CWS concentration, pH 8.5, and 1.0 g L ammonium chloride. Physiochemically, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) techniques, emphasized the type of the extracted PHA as polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). The thermal properties of PHB were measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), recording melting transition temperature (Tm) at 170.96 °C. Furthermore, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) visualized a homogenous microporous structure for the thin PHB biofilm. In essence, this study highlights the ability of Bacillus flexus Azu-A2 to produce a good yield of highly purified PHB at reduced production cost from dairy CW. Consequently, the current study paves the way for an improved whey management strategy.