LAUSR

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has been extensively utilized in wide range of applications thanks to its excellent physico-chemical and biological features. The major limitation restricting its application in certain areas is its high production cost. Herein, we have tried to utilize waste and cheaply available local resources including waste (expired) orange juice (WOJ), sugarcane juice (SC) and coconut water (CW) as alternative media for BC production in comparison with the synthetic media (control). The results indicated 2.75, 2.56, 3.32 and 1.68 g/L BC production that corresponded to 27.5%, 21.7 %, 20.1 % and 31.6 % sugar to BC conversion from control, WOJ, SC and CW media, respectively. Morphology and crystalline features of produced BC samples were observed through FE-SEM and XRD analysis. It was noteworthy that BC produced from all alternative sources indicated high water holding capabilities (WHC) and better water retention time (WRT). Furthermore, the mechanical properties of BC produced from alternative cheap sources were also comparable with the control BC. The BC production from cheap resources and its high physical and mechanical properties can be of high interest for scaling up and commercialization of BC production processes.