Technical and economic evaluation of using hydrogen peroxide to provide oxygen in the production of bioplastics

位于艾伯塔省埃德蒙顿的TerraVerdae BioWorks公司正在商业化一系列生物塑料产品——聚羟基烷酸酯，这些产品是通过细菌发酵过程生产的。为了降低资金成本，必须获得高密度的细菌。这需要给生物反应器提供纯氧，这是非常昂贵的。有人建议，通常用于工业漂白过程的过氧化氢可能是一种更便宜的氧气来源，因为它可以分解成氧气和水。然而，过氧化氢也可以杀死细菌。研究已经成功地证明，过氧化氢可以用作细菌发酵中的氧气来源，但它从未应用于高密度培养，因为它需要生产聚羟基烷酸酯。本项目将开发在高密度细菌培养中使用过氧化氢而不伤害产生生物塑料的细菌的方法。将收集数据，使TerraVerdae能够对用过氧化氢替代纯氧作出准确的经济评估。将开发一种自动过氧化氢加料工艺并将其转让给TerraVerdae，以便他们可以在更大规模上测试该工艺。TerraVerdae估计，在每年5000亿美元的既定塑料市场中，生物塑料的潜在价值约为500亿美元，拟议的工作对于使聚羟基烷酸酯生物塑料与石油基塑料相比更具成本竞争力非常重要。这将减少我们对石油的依赖，产生比石化材料更少的温室气体，生物塑料可能是可堆肥的。

TerraVerdae BioWorks Inc, Edmonton, Alberta, is commercializing a range of bioplastic products, polyhydroxyalkanoates, that are produced in bacterial fermentation processes. To reduce capital cost, high densities of bacteria must be obtained. This requires feeding the bioreactors with pure oxygen, which is very expensive. It has been suggested that hydrogen peroxide, typically used in industrial bleaching processes, could be a cheaper source of oxygen as it can decompose to oxygen and water. However, hydrogen peroxide can also kill bacteria. Studies have successfully demonstrated that hydrogen peroxide can be used as a source of oxygen in bacterial fermentations but it has never been applied to high density culture as needed for polyhydroxyalkanoate production. The present project will develop the methodology to use hydrogen peroxide in high-density bacterial culture without harming the bioplastic-producing bacteria. Data will be gathered to allow TerraVerdae to make accurate economic assessments regarding the replacement of pure oxygen with hydrogen peroxide. An automated hydrogen peroxide feeding process will be developed and transferred to TerraVerdae, such that they can test the process on a larger scale. TerraVerdae estimates that bioplastics is potentially worth ~$50B in an established $500B/yr plastics market and the proposed work is important in making the polyhydroxyalkanoate bioplastics more cost competitive with petroleum-based plastics. This will reduce our reliance on petroleum, produces less greenhouse gases than materials from petrochemicals and bioplastics are potentially compostable.