Microbial Production of Polyhydroxyalkanoates From Plant Oils: Renewability and Biodegradability

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are sustainable materials that could replace fossil-fuel-based plastics. These biodegradable materials are produced via bacterial fermentation from renewable resources such as agricultural products. Agricultural feedstock is a highly attractive resource for efficient PHA production that could yield an economical process. Plant oils are seen as one of several highly attractive feedstocks because they are abundantly available at reasonable cost and able to give a high PHA yield. Although there are some skeptics, the use of plant oils could ultimately result in effective PHA production because the overall cost is only marginally linked to the expense of the raw materials. In tackling the great challenges facing the PHA production process, this review will discuss the bioproduction of diverse types of PHA from plant oils and their derivative products including fatty acids. This review focusses on the formation of PHA from plant oils as the fermentative substrate, targeting yield improvements and diversification into the new PHA types using existing strategies. The characterization and PHA properties will be described as well. At the end of this chapter, several major challenges and the outlook for the future commercial application of PHAs are addressed.