%0 Generic %A Jin, Yong %A van den Enden, Roel %A Castrikum, Elvis %A de Leeuw, Kasper D. %A Strik, David %D 2025 %T Data underlying the research of Mesophilic Fermentation Explorations for Anaerobic Carboxylates Production from Commercial Bioplastic Products: PHA-based ‘Happy Cups’ & PLA-based Lids %U %R 10.4121/7be1be62-529a-4918-a298-27dfc85b83c0.v1 %K PHA %K PLA %K commercial bioplastic products %K mesophilic fermentation %K carboxylates %X

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.

%I 4TU.ResearchData