Current research in industrial microbiology and biotechnology focuses on the production of biodegradable microbial polymers as an environmentally friendly alternative to still dominant fossil-based plastics. Microbial polymers have an extensive biotechnological potential and are already widely used in a variety of fields ranging from medicine to technology. However, their increase in production and wider use is hampered by the high cost of raw materials and therefore requires a focus on cheaper inputs, including dairy by-products and waste such as cheese whey (CW). This is an environmentally unfriendly by-product of milk processing and reducing it would also reduce the risk of environmental pollution. This review summarises current knowledge on the use of CW and derived products to obtain commercially important microbial polymers, including information about producer cultures, fermentation techniques and methods used, composition of culture medium, cultivation conditions and productivity of bioprocesses. The main methods and applications of cheese whey pre-treatment are also summarised.

中文翻译：

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由乳清生产可生物降解的微生物聚合物

当前在工业微生物学和生物技术方面的研究集中在可生物降解的微生物聚合物的生产上，以作为对仍然占主导地位的基于化石的塑料的环保替代。微生物聚合物具有广泛的生物技术潜力，已经广泛用于从医学到技术的各个领域。但是，原材料的高成本阻碍了它们的产量增长和广泛使用，因此需要集中精力于更便宜的投入，包括乳制品副产品和奶酪乳清（CW）等废物。这是牛奶加工过程中对环境有害的副产品，减少它还会降低环境污染的风险。这篇评论总结了有关使用化学废物和衍生产品来获得商业上重要的微生物聚合物的最新知识，包括有关生产者文化，所用发酵技术和方法，培养基组成，培养条件和生物过程生产率的信息。还总结了干酪乳清预处理的主要方法和应用。