Resistance of Bacillus Amyloliquefaciens spores to melt extrusion process conditions

With the increasing demand for functionalised textile materials, industry is focusing on research that will add novel properties to textiles. Bioactive compounds and their benefits have been and are still considered as a possible source of unique functionalities to be explored. However, incorporating bioactive compounds into textiles and their resistance to textile process parameters has not yet been studied. In this study, we developed a system to study the resistance of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens spores against melt extrusion process parameters, like temperature (21, 200, 250, 300 °C), pressure (0.1, 0.6 and 1.0 MPa) and residence time (0, 1 and 10 minutes). The spores were successfully embedded in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) films and fibres through melt extrusion. Afterwards the survival rate of the spores was determined after extrusion and the data was used to develop a quadratic equation that relates the survival rate to the spore concentration.