Week 1 HW: Final Project Ideas

1. What would I like to biofabricate and why?

I would like to develop a biodegradable biomaterial from whey and bacterial cellulose. My idea is to use whey as a substrate to cultivate bacterial cellulose and then incorporate the whey proteins as part of the final biocomposite.

I am interested in this idea because I am an industrial design student and I am interested in developing new materials from waste. In Hidalgo, Mexico, dairy and cheese production generates whey as a byproduct. Instead of treating whey simply as waste, I would like to explore how it could become part of a useful material.

The final material could be manufactured in thin sheets or panels for product design, packaging, or other low-load applications. I would like to create different versions of the material by modifying the proportions of bacterial cellulose and whey proteins. This could help produce materials with different properties, such as flexibility, stiffness, thickness, or transparency.

The main objective is not yet to create a final product, but rather to explore whey as a biological resource for developing a new family of materials.

Research has shown that whey can be used as a medium for the production of bacterial cellulose. For example, Komagataeibacter rhaeticus has been successfully cultured using whey, and other studies have obtained higher production of bacterial cellulose from hydrolyzed whey. This makes the idea scientifically interesting and worthy of further investigation.

2. What living system would you use?

I would use a microbial system, specifically a bacterial cellulose-producing microorganism of the genus Komagataeibacter.

Generally speaking, the process would begin with whey. The whey would be treated to make its nutrients more available to the bacteria. The bacteria would grow in the whey-based medium and produce bacterial cellulose as extracellular material.

The main inputs would be whey, water, nutrients, and the bacterial culture. The biological process would consist of microbial growth and cellulose production. The main product would be a sheet or film of bacterial cellulose.

After the bacterial cellulose grows, it would be processed and combined with whey-derived proteins to create the final biocompound.

I assume the whey would require some kind of pretreatment, as its composition can vary depending on the dairy process. I also assume the bacterial strain and culture conditions would significantly influence the quantity and properties of the cellulose.

Previous studies have shown that whey can promote bacterial cellulose production. One study using hydrolyzed cheese whey yielded approximately 4.95 g/L of bacterial cellulose, while another study achieved approximately 6.97 g/L after adding corn mash liquor to the hydrolyzed whey medium. A 2025 study also demonstrated that acid whey can be used as a substrate for bacterial cellulose production by K. xylinus.

3. How would you use automation?

I would use a liquid handling robot during the first stage of the project.

The robot could prepare different serum-based media, add nutrients, various samples, and run many small experiments in parallel. It could also assist with sampling and measurements.

For example, I could create 20 to 50 different experiments with varying serum concentrations, pretreatment methods, bacterial concentrations, and culture conditions. Instead of preparing each experiment manually, the robot could perform the liquid handling steps more consistently.

This would be useful because the main goal of the first stage would be to determine which conditions produce the most bacterial cellulose and which produce the best material properties.

For larger-scale manufacturing, I would likely need larger bioreactors with automated control of temperature, pH, oxygen, mixing, and harvesting. The desktop robot would be primarily useful for prototyping and optimization.

4. How much would you need to produce, and how long would it take?

(a) How much?

For a first meaningful pilot test, I would define my target as 1/2 m² of the biomaterial.

I will assume that the material is approximately 5 mm thick. This density is within the range reported for bacterial cellulose produced from serum-based media. If a production cycle lasts approximately 7 days, a 7 L batch could produce the desired amount in about a week.

This is only a technical estimate. Scaling up bacterial cellulose production from laboratory vessels to large bioreactors can alter oxygen transfer, mixing, contamination risk, and production yield. These factors could lengthen the actual production time.

5. What I still don’t know:

6. How the whey composition and pretreatment will affect bacterial cellulose production. Whey can have different compositions depending on the type of cheese and the production process. I would need to test different pretreatment methods and whey concentrations.

7. Which bacterial strain and culture conditions would produce the best material. I would need to compare strains such as K. rhaeticus and K. xylinus and measure cellulose yield, growth time, and material properties.

8. How to combine whey proteins and bacterial cellulose. It would be necessary to test different proportions and measure properties such as tensile strength, flexibility, water resistance, thickness, and biodegradability.

These experiments would help determine whether whey can be transformed into a consistent and useful biomaterial on a larger scale.

References

[1] “Synthesis of bacterial cellulose by Komagataeibacter rhaeticus MSCL 1463 in whey.” PubMed, 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36875957/

[2] “Evaluation of a hydrolyzed cheese whey medium to enhance bacterial cellulose production by Komagataeibacter rhaeticus MSCL 1463.” PubMed, 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38896375/

[3] “Study on the production of bacterial cellulose by Komagataeibacter xylinus in co-culture with lactic acid bacteria in whey.” PubMed, 2025. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40839214/

[4] “Optimization of bacterial cellulose production by Komagataeibacter xylinus PTCC 1734 in a low-cost medium using an optimal combined design.” PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32549603/

Use of AI

I used ChatGPT to understand the task, organize my ideas, check the feasibility of using whey for bacterial cellulose production, and improve my English writing.

Instructions used:

“Investigate the scientific feasibility of using whey in a bacterial cellulose production system and/or as a component of a biocomposite. Use real and reliable scientific sources and explain the main evidence, limitations, and unknown technical aspects.”

Final Project