Bacterial Cellulose

Basics

• Cellulose made via (Non-Pathogenic, Industrial ) Bacteria, rather than the usual Cellulosic Biomass
• In particular interest is Komagataeibacter hansenii which was isolated from Kombucha SCOBY and produces a SCOBY-esque Pellicle of (near) Pure Cellulose
  • Need to dig into papers on how pure it is/typical impurities

Main Applications

• Non-Plastic Vegan Leather (Re: SCOBY Leather )
• Precision Fermentation
  • Especially for certain Industrial Wastewater Treatment Streams as an alternative to “simple” Aerobic Digestion etc
    • Unlike mote conventional routes that either produce no product (other that Sludge/ Digestate ), or (Conventional) Anaerobic Digestion which produces a comparatively low quality product ( Biogas ), if designed properly Bacterial Cellulose could turn waste streams into High Value, In Demand products
      • Might be some difficulty in producing medical grade cellulose if using certain waste streams,? Need to look into this further
    • This probably falls under Waste Valorization / Waste Recovery to an extent

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Bacterial Cellulose
  • The Wikipedia Page on Komagataeibacter hansenii
• A Video by the YouTube Channel “TheThoughtEmporium” Titled “Turning Vodka into Toilet Paper (Reverse Nilered ) “ ( ‘’’~18 Minute Watch’’’ )
  • The process essentially goes:
    • Vodka->Diluted Vodka + Yeast Nitrogen Base -> Yeast in an Aerobic Respiration mode -> Yeast Extract / Lysogeny Broth -> Komagataeibacter hansenii Culture -> Bioreactor optimized for Air-Liquid Interface for large pellicle production -> Bacterial Cellulose Pellicle -> Freeze Dried Bacterial Cellulose -> Improvised Paper Pulp -> Paper
  • Adapting this process to Formic Acid as per EForFuel , or perhaps Syngas or Methane / Methanol may be a good P2X route to explore further