ABSTRACT
Regarding the selection of powerful microbial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) production strains, robust species, which are resistant to microbial contamination and which possess a broad substrate spectrum and a well-studied genome, proteome and metabolome are currently investigated by the scientific community all over the world. This chapter explains that the cultivation of halophilic organisms in saline media leads to the intracellular accumulation of salt and to the partial removal of the salt load from the medium. various high-carbon waste streams are converted by hydrochloric acid-catalyzed hydrolysis into biotechnologically accessible substrates. After hydrolysis, neutralization by caustic soda is necessary, which in turn produces salt. Such processes have recently been demonstrated by the example of using acid-catalyzed whey permeate, straw, bagasse, sawdust, or coffee stock to extract the microbially accessible raw material for PHA biosynthesis. The application of production strains which are halophilic and thermophilic at the same time holds particular promise for energy efficient PHA production processes.
