Revijalni prikaz suvremene biotehnološke sinteze polimera

The industrial implementation of cost- and eco-efficient production of bio-based polymeric materials such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) or polylactic acid (PLA) requires the comprehension of all process steps. The article at hand provides an insight into recent advances in allocation, pretreatment and utilization of raw materials available for biopolymer production in different areas of the world. Further, the high potential and risks of applying continuous process conduction in comparison with batch and fed-batch fermentation mode are elucidated. It is shown that the process design for continuous PHA production strongly depends on the kinetic characteristics for growth and product formation of the applied production strain. In addition, the triggering of the biopolymer properties by fine-tuning of the polyester composition during biosynthesis is demonstrated. Here, the impact of certain process parameters like the partial oxygen tension on the intracellular metabolic fluxes and the supplementation of cosubstrates on the polyester composition are discussed. In addition, such specialists among microbes are presented that possess the metabolic prerequisites to accumulate high-quality copolyesters merely from cheap unrelated carbon sources without the necessity for supplying expensive cosubstrates. In the field of downstream processing, sustainable methods for product isolation during biopolymer production that do not have a negative influence on the environment are presented.Industrijska proizvodnja isplativih i ekoloških biopolimernih materijala, poput polihidroksialkanoata ili polimliječne kiseline, zahtijeva razumijevanje svih faza procesa. Stoga su u radu navedeni najnoviji postupci alokacije i prethodne obrade, te načini uporabe sirovina za proizvodnju polimera u različitim dijelovima svijeta. Zatim su procijenjeni mogućnost i rizik primjene kontinuiranog procesa proizvodnje, u usporedbi sa šaržnom fermentacijom s pritokom supstrata ili bez njega. Pokazalo se da dizajn procesa kontinuirane proizvodnje polihidroksialkanoata uvelike ovisi o kinetici rasta proizvodnoga soja i formiranju produkta. Osim toga, preciznim se podešavanjem sastava poliestera potiče oblikovanje različitih biopolimera. Utvrđeno je da djelomična zasićenost kisikom utječe na intracelularne tokove a dodatak kosupstrata na sastav poliestera. U radu su navedene neke vrste mikroorganizama koje bez dodatka skupih kosupstrata mogu akumulirati visokokvalitetne kopoliestere iz jeftinih izvora ugljika. Također su prikazane održive metode izolacije biopolimera koje nemaju negativan utjecaj na okoliš