recent research on economic production and water absorption improvement of bacterial cellulose: a review

Bacterial cellulose (bc) has been applied in various industries, like the hygiene and medical industry, due to its functional properties (water absorption properties, mechanical strength, biodegradability, and nanostructure). however, the use of bc instead of petrochemical products in the hygiene industry is associated with challenges such as high production costs and low water absorption performance. the type of microbial strain, the development of a cheap culture medium using food industry waste, and the optimization of the production type and conditions are among the most important strategies that have been used in recent years to increase production yield and reduce bc costs. also, the presence of different hydroxyl functional groups in each repeating unit of the bc chain makes it possible to make various changes to increase its water absorption capacity by using in-situ and external modifications and adding different chemical or biological compounds to make it competitive with chemical polymers. in this article, an attempt has been made to encourage researchers and industries by reviewing the recent research related to reducing production costs and increasing the water absorption power of bc to make more efforts towards the possibility of replacing the chemical polymer with a biodegradable and environmentally friendly biopolymer.