Calcium enhances polyhydroxyalkanoate production and promotes selective growth of the polyhydroxyalkanoate-storing biomass in municipal activated sludge

Activated sludge from municipal wastewater treatment processes can be used directly for the production of biodegradable polyesters from the family of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). However, municipal activated sludge typically cannot accumulate PHAs to very high levels and often low yields of polymer produced on substrate are observed. In the present work, it was found that the presence of calcium promotes selective growth and enrichment of the PHA-storing biomass fraction and significantly improved both PHA contents and yields. Calcium addition resulted in PHA contents of 0.60 +/- 0.03 gPHA/gVSS and average PHA yields on substrate of 0.49 +/- 0.03 gCODPHA/gCODHAc compared to 0.35 +/- 0.01 gPHA/gVSS and 0.19 +/- 0.01 gCODPHA/gCODHAc without calcium addition. After 48 h, three times more PHA was produced compared to control experiments without calcium addition. Higher PHA content and selective biomass production is proposed to be a consequence of calcium dependent increased levels of passive acetate uptake. Such more efficient substrate uptake could be related to a formation of calcium acetate complexes. Findings lead to bioprocess methods to stimulate a short-term selective growth of PHA-storing microorganisms and this enables improvements to the techno-economic feasibility for municipal waste activated sludge to become a generic resource for industrial scale PHA production.