Production and Applications of Microbial Polyhydroxyalkanoates

摘要

Microbial production of PHA has been developed over the past two decades. PHB and PHBV fermentation technology has been very well exploited. Production costs for these two types of polymers have been significantly reduced. Better performing polymers, especially copolyesters consisting of HB and mclHA, should be the focal point for development. However, current industrial production strains for this type of polymers suffer from slow growth, low substrate to product transformation efficiency, and dependence on expensive substrates. Efforts should be made to isolating or engineering high productive strains and to improving fermentation and downstream processing technology. Before the PHA production cost can be brought to the point where it can compete with conventional plastics, high value added application in medical fields should be the real destination of PHA. As these polymers possess not only excellent mechanical properties and processability but also good biocompatibility, their application as tissue engineering materials looks very promising.