Ultrasound Assisted Rapid Extraction of Bacterial Intracellular Medium Chain Length Poly(3 Hydroxyalkanoates) (mcl PHAs) in Medium Mixture of Solvent/Marginal Non solvent
Intracellular medium chain length poly(3 hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs) produced by Pseudomonasputida Bet001 were extracted in an ultrasound assisted process. A mixture of acetone (solvent) and heptane (marginal non solvent) was used as the extraction medium. The effects of volumetric energy dissipation, extraction medium ratio and irradiation time on the extraction process were investigated. Sonication frequency of 37 kHz and heptane as marginal non solvent facilitated the process. Following optimization, high PHA extraction rate of {74 \times 10^ 3}\rm g}$74x10 3g PHA \rm g} 1}$g 1 dried biomass \rm min} 1}$min 1 was observed at ultrasonic energy output of {1151 \pm 3 \rm J ml} 1}$1151+ 3Jml 1 with 50:50 solvent/marginal non solvent ratio for irradiation time of 5 min. PHA showed good stability under the rapid extraction process.