Data underlying the research of Mesophilic Fermentation Explorations for Anaerobic Carboxylates Production from Commercial Bioplastic Products: PHA-based ‘Happy Cups’ & PLA-based Lids

DOI:10.4121/7be1be62-529a-4918-a298-27dfc85b83c0.v1
The DOI displayed above is for this specific version of this dataset, which is currently the latest. Newer versions may be published in the future. For a link that will always point to the latest version, please use
DOI: 10.4121/7be1be62-529a-4918-a298-27dfc85b83c0

Datacite citation style

Jin, Yong; van den Enden, Roel; Castrikum, Elvis; de Leeuw, Kasper D.; Strik, David (2025): Data underlying the research of Mesophilic Fermentation Explorations for Anaerobic Carboxylates Production from Commercial Bioplastic Products: PHA-based ‘Happy Cups’ & PLA-based Lids. Version 1. 4TU.ResearchData. dataset. https://doi.org/10.4121/7be1be62-529a-4918-a298-27dfc85b83c0.v1
Other citation styles (APA, Harvard, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, IEEE) available at Datacite

Dataset

Biodegradable plastics such as polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and polylactic acid (PLA) are increasingly applied in commercial products, but their end-of-life (EoL) processing remains inefficient in terms of carbon and energy recovery. Carboxylates, such as acetate and n-butyrate, are valuable platform chemicals that can serve as precursors for bioplastics, biofuels, and other biobased products. Producing carboxylates from biodegradable plastics offers a promising strategy to recover carbon and support circular EoL management beyond conventional options like composting or incineration. This study presents mesophilic open-culture fermentation strategies to convert commercial PHA and PLA raw materials and/or products into carboxylates. A sequential bioprocess was developed using a gas-lift anaerobic filter bioreactor, initiating in Phase I with batch fermentation of hydrolysates derived from hydrothermally pretreated PHA (10 g/L) and PLA (1.4 g/L) pellets. In Phase II, continuous operation produced 6.6 g/L acetate and 4.8 g/L n-butyrate from the same hydrolysates source. During Phase III, additional shredded commercial bioplastic products (PHA-based cups and PLA-based lids) were filled to co-ferment with hydrolysates, which further increased acetate and n-butyrate yields to 7.2 g/L and 5.5 g/L, respectively. In subsequent phases, hydrolysates feeding was stopped, and only the remaining solid bioplastics were used. The hydraulic retention time was extended from 2 to 18 days in Phase V. Overall, 35% of the PHA-based cups were converted into carboxylates, while PLA-based lids showed negligible degradation. Residual plastics were partially fragmented into microplastics. Microbial community analysis revealed that Clostridium tyrobutyricum likely played a key role in the hydrolysates fermentation of PHA and PLA pellets, while a broader microbial consortium contributed to solid bioplastic conversion.

History

  • 2025-07-18 first online, published, posted

Publisher

4TU.ResearchData

Format

xlsx/txt

Funding

  • China Scholarship Council (CSC)
  • Biotech Booster

Organizations

Environmental Technology, Agrotechnology and Food Sciences Group, Wageningen University & Research

DATA

Files (3)