Production of poly-β-hydroxybutyric acid (PHB) by Bacillus cereus on pineapple peels

Global population increase with the public demands could exceed the limit of natural resources soon and the current world problem on effective means of disposing used plastics which has posed great threat on the environment, therefore, this research was aim at producing biodegradable plastic using pineapple peels inoculated with Bacillus cereus. Sudan Black test was done to confirm the Bacillus cereus ability to produce polyhdroxybutyrate. Using fed-batch fermentation technology, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) pellets were produced, extracted and purified via solvent extraction. Pineapple peels as a substrate for the production of PHB yielded a good result with the cell dry weight of 4.7%.  The produced plastic was characterized using Fourier transform Infra-red (FT-IR) and gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). Bacillus cereus on pineapple peels can efficiently synthesized PHB which is a cheaper source and an alternative and better way to produced biodegradable plastic.