Together with other so-called "bio-plastics", Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are expected to soon replace established polymers on the plastic market. As a prerequisite, optimized process design is needed to make PHAs attractive in terms of costs and quality. Nowadays, large-scale PHA production relies on discontinuous fed-batch cultivation in huge bioreactors. Such processes presuppose numerous s...

Abstract Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) produced by many bacteria have been investigated by microbiologists, molecular biologists, biochemists, chemical engineers, chemists, polymer experts, and medical researchers over the past many years. Applications of PHA as bioplastics, fine chemicals, implant biomaterials, medicines, and biofuels have been developed. Companies have been established or invol...

This integrated study shows that waste glycerol can be bio-valorized by the fabrication of electrospun scaffolds for stem cells. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) provide an interesting model of regenerating cells because of their ability to differentiate into osteo-, chrondro-, adipo- and myogenic lineages. Moreover, hMSC have modulatory properties with potential on treatment of immunologic ...

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) is reported as polyesters of hydroxyalkanoates (HAs) which is generally synthesized by numerous bacteria and it is stored in the cytoplasm of cells as an intracellular carbon and energy sources compound. It has been considered as a replacement for conventional plastics. Microbial cell such as Alcaligenes, Pseudomonas, recombinant Escherichia coli and methylotrophs a...

Glycerol, a byproduct of the biodiesel industry, can be used by bacteria as an inexpensive carbon source for the production of value-added biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Burkholderia cepacia ATCC 17759 synthesized poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) from glycerol concentrations ranging from 3% to 9% (v/v). Increasing the glycerol concentration results in a gradual reduction of biomass, PH...

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method for quantification of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), containing 4-carbon to 16-carbon monomers, even in the absence of standards, was developed. Strong linear correlations existed between PHA carbon number and retention time/response factor (R(2) ≥ 0.987). Based on the correlations, high recovery values, between 100.5% and 114.3%, were obtained for P...

Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) have been produced as bioplastics for various purposes. Under the support of China National Basic Research 973 Project, we developed synthetic biology methods to diversify the PHA structures into homo-, random, block polymers with improved properties to better meet various application requirements. At the same time, various pathways were assembled to produc...

This editorial paper provides a synopsis of the contributions to the Bioengineering special issue "Advances in Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Production". It illustrates the embedding of the issue's individual research articles in the current global research and development landscape related to polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). The article shows how these articles are interrelated to each other, reflect...