Sustainable PHA Recovery from agri-food waste via purPLE non-sulfur bacteria mixed cultures

PHARPLE is a collaborative research project between Politecnico di Milano Univerity and the University of Verona, funded by the Italian ministerial programme fund for Research Projects of National Interest (PRIN). The project develops two novel bioprocesses exploiting the metabolic versatility of purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB) mixed cultures for the efficient recovery of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from agri-food residues and biogenic CO₂. The environmental and techno-economic performance of these new processes will be evaluated in the context of a multi-feedstock, multi-purpose biorefinery producing PHAs, biomethane and nutrient-rich digestate.

LabICAB is responsible for the development of the photoautotrophic process for the valorisation of biogenic CO₂ into PHAs.