Polyhydroxybutyrate production from oil palm empty fruit bunch using Bacillus megaterium R11

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), contains abundant cellulose and hemicelluloses and can be used as a renewable resource for fuel and chemical production. This study, as the first attempt, aims to convert OPEFB derived sugars to polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). OPEFB collected from a Malaysia palm oil refinery plant was chemically pretreated and enzymatically hydrolyzed by an in-house prepared cellulase cocktail. The PHB producer, Bacillus megaterium R11, was isolated in Singapore and could accumulate PHB up to 51.3% of its cell dry weight (CDW) from both glucose and xylose. Tryptone was identified as its best nitrogen source. PHB content and production reached 58.5% and 9.32 g/L, respectively, for an overall OPEFB sugar concentration of 45 g/L. These respectively reached 51.6% and 12.48 g/L for OPEFB hydrolysate containing 60 g/L sugar with a productivity of 0.260 g/L/h.