Bioproduction of Polyhydroxyalkanoate from Plant Oils

Abstract

There is a global rise in interest for sustainable biomass-based polymers as promising new material, due to their pronounced advantages such as renewability, biodegradability, and comparable properties to those plastics derived from fossil oil. Several efforts have been made in tackling numerous challenges and drawbacks, especially those focusing on expanding the horizon of bioplastic usage, improvement in polymer properties, processing methods, and cost-effective production. Plant oils and fatty acids derived from them have been used by polymer technologists for the production of a biodegradable polymer, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), using microbial organisms such as Ralstonia eutropha and Escherichia coli. This chapter will review the literature reporting the perspectives and opportunities in the field of PHA production from plant oils such as corn oil, jatropha oil, palm-based oil, soybean oil, as well as their various fatty acids as feedstocks. The abundance of naturally growing plants that are rich in oils and fats, their relatively low price, and their rich application possibilities make them the most important renewable feedstock in the green plastic industry. This chapter also discusses some introductory concepts about polyhydroxyalkanoates with regard to their engineering applications. Moreover, their properties as well as effective processing techniques, along with the various strategies implemented for their potential commercial applications, have also been presented.