Fifty-five bacterial strains isolated from soil were screened for efficient poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (P3HB) biosynthesis from xylose. Three strains were also evaluated for the utilization of bagasse hydrolysate after different detoxification steps. The results showed that activated charcoal treatment is pivotal to the production of a hydrolysate easy to assimilate. Burkholderia cepacia IPT 048 and B. sacchari IPT 101 were selected for bioreactor studies, in which higher polymer contents and yields from the carbon source were observed with bagasse hydrolysate, compared with the use of analytical grade carbon sources. Polymer contents and yields, respectively, reached 62% and 0.39 g g(-1) with strain IPT 101 and 53% and 0.29 g g(-1) with strain IPT 048. A higher polymer content and yield from the carbon source was observed under P limitation, compared with N limitation, for strain IPT 101. IPT 048 showed similar performances in the presence of either growth-limiting nutrient. In high-cell-density cultures using xylose plus glucose under P limitation, both strains reached about 60 g l(-1) dry biomass, containing 60% P3HB. Polymer productivity and yield from this carbon source reached 0.47 g l(-1) h(-1) and 0.22 g g(-1), respectively.

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Bio‐based succinic acid is a potential building block for the production of renewable chemicals and polymers. The use of hemicellulosic hydrolyzate from sugarcane bagasse allows production of succinic acid without competing with food chains and increasing the biomass ‐aggregated value. This work assesses the economic impacts of integrating the production of ‐succinic acid on an optimized sugarcane biorefinery with the production of first‐generation ethanol and electricity. Process simulation was performed to obtain mass and energy balances of the entire process, from bagasse pre‐treatment to pentose fermentation and succinic acid recovery, using several pieces of technical information and data taken from the scientific literature. After ‐assessing the impacts of key economic variables through risk analysis, the obtained results were benchmarked against those of an optimized ethanol distillery. Calculated succinic acid production cost was US$ 2.32/kg, comparable to costs related to less expensive sugar sources. The integrated succinic acid biorefinery presented a slightly lower internal rate of return (IRR) compared to an ‐ethanol distillery. However, even when considering uncertainties, succinic acid production has a strong probability (84.6%) of achieving an IRR higher than 12%. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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