The current sale prices of PHB are between 3.1 and 4.4 USD/kg,
using glucose and/or sucrose as carbon sources. The total production
cost of the PHB calculated in this work using glycerol as carbon
source is 2.6 USD/kg having approximately a 20% of profit
margin (0.5 USD/kg). Hence, the impact of glycerol in the biodiesel
supply chain is analyzed as follows: the sale price of the crude
glycerol obtained in the biodiesel production is 0,1 USD/kg. The
conversion of glycerol into PHB using the conditions established
in this work is 0,6 kg PHB/kg glycerol. Taking into consideration
the profit margin demonstrated in the production of PHB from
crude glycerol, a valorization of approximately 166.2% of this compound
is then obtained. Even though B. megaterium demonstrated
to produce PHB using glycerol as carbon source, other producing
microorganisms (such as C. necator) should be studied and their
PHB production analyzed using the process schemes proposed in
this study.