Biomass properties solvent extraction

Extraction of natural materials in order to produce extracts with useful flavor, fragrance, nutritional and other pharmacological properties is a centuries old practice. Traditionally, such extracts are isolated from the relevant biomass (flowers, roots, peel, leaves etc.) using a variety of processes ranging from steam distillation through solvent extraction to simple mechanical expression. Many of these initial materials have been subjected to further refinement steps in order to produce a finished product of acceptable quality. 

The PHB is soluble in organic solvent this property leads to the effective and higher PHB extraction from cells. Several solvents such as chloroform, dichloroethane, tri-chloroethane, ethylene, hexane propanol, and acetone alcohol have been in use for isolation and purification of PHB to solubilize the PHB. The treatment of methanol or acetone to biomass, before the solvent extraction leads to denature low molecular weight proteins which enhance the purity of PHB. 

The effect of the presence of medium-sized branches on the physical properties also shows up in the solubihty. Unlike the highly aystaUine PHB and PHBV, mcl-3HA-contaming PHA copolymers are readily soluble in so-called green solvents, such as ethyl acetate and acetone. It is possible to extract the polymer from biomass without using halogen-containing solvents such as chloroform (Noda and Schechtman 1999). This favorable solubiUty profile provides extra flexibility and economy in the extraction and purification of PHA copolymers. 

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