Recovery of Biodegradable Bioplastics from Different Activated Sludge Processes during Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

To overcome the environmental hazards of petroleum based plastics, synthesis and use of microbial bioplastics became popular. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable biopolymers having plastic like properties mainly used in tissue engineering and packaging. Bacteria can produce bioplastics in carbon abundance. Activated sludge process is a simultaneous process for treating wastewater and producing PHAs. Wastewaters are treated by using mixed sludge, aerobic granular sludge and chemically treated sludge which provided more than 40% PHA yield. This chapter describes the PHA structure, synthesis pathways, types of wastewaters and activated sludge processes used with reactor parameters and environmental factors effecting PHA productions.