Estimation of inhibitory effects of hemicellulosic wood hydrolysate inhibitors on PHA production by Burkholderia cepacia ATCC 17759 using response surface methodology

Sugar maple hemicellulosic hydrolysate was utilized as a renewable feedstock for polyhydroxyalkanoates production by Burkholderia cepacia ATCC 17759. To estimate inhibitory effects of the hydrolysate, response surface methodology was utilized to analyze cell growth and PHA accumulation in the presence of multiple inhibitors. Mixture design was employed to study the correlation between the proportion of phenolics and total inhibition. The resultant models (R2 as 92.42% and 93.14% for cell growth and PHA production, respectively) indicated syringic acid was the most inhibitory among three phenolics and synergistic inhibition was observed for the combinations of vanillin/syringic acid and vanillic acid/syringic acid. When furfural, levulinic acid, and acetate were also present during the fermentation, central composite design was employed. The regression model using 48 h cell growth as the response surface (R2 = 87.82%) showed acetate was the most inhibitory. Additionally, strong synergistic effects were observed for the combinations of acetate/phenolics and levulinic acid/furfural.