The biodegradation of aromatic-aliphatic biodegradable polyester poly(butylene adipate-coterephthalate) (PBAT) was studied under mesophilic (37°C) and thermophilic (55°C) anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic sludge from municipal wastewater treatment plant was utilized as an inoculum. Non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of PBAT before and after biodegradation was explored by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Under mesophilic anaerobic conditions (37°C) the biodegradation after 126 days was only 2.2 %, molecular weight changed from 93000 to 25500 g/mol and the crystallization behavior was changed only slightly. However, biodegradation under thermophilic anaerobic conditions (55°C) caused much bigger changes: biodegradation according to biogas production reached after 126 days 8.3 %, molecular weight changed from 93000 to 9430 g/mol and the crystallization behavior was changed significantly.While Tm increased only slightly, Tc on the other hand increased significantly for the sample after biodegradation at 55°C. Also the crystallization rate was slower (particularly at lower cooling rates), but crystallinity was slightly higher. The diffraction pattern was observed by Xray diffraction (XRD).

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