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Updated: Apr 24, 2026

Scalable Step-by-Step Approach of Sustainable Bioplastic Production from Food Waste
Published on: July 18, 2025
Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) by bacterial consortium from excess sludge fermentation liquid at
Qianqian Jia1, Huilei Xiong2, Hui Wang2
1State Key Joint Laboratory on Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning & Design, Beijing 100045, China.
Abstract:
The generation of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from excess sludge fermentation liquid (SFL) was studied at lab and pilot scale. A PHA-accumulated bacterial consortium (S-150) was isolated from activated sludge using simulated SFL (S-SFL) contained high concentration volatile fatty acids (VFA) and nitrogen. The maximal PHA content accounted for 59.18% in S-SFL and dropped to 23.47% in actual SFL (L-SFL) of the dry cell weight (DCW) at lab scale. The pilot-scale integrated system comprised an anaerobic fermentation reactor (AFR), a ceramic membrane system (CMS) and a PHA production bio-reactor (PHAR). The PHA content from pilot-scale SFL (P-SFL) finally reached to 59.47% DCW with the maximal PHA yield coefficient (YP/S) of 0.17 g PHA/g COD. The results indicated that VFA-containing SFL was suitable for PHA production. The adverse impact of excess nitrogen and non-VFAs in SFL might be eliminated by pilot-scale domestication, which might resulted in community structure optimization and substrate selective ability improvement of S-150.
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