Waste to bioplastics: How close are we to sustainable polyhydroxyalkanoates production?

Increased awareness of environmental sustainability with associated strict environmental regulations has incentivized the pursuit of novel materials to replace conventional petroleum-derived plastics. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are appealing intracellular biopolymers and have drawn significant attention as a viable alternative to petrochemical based plastics not only due to their comparable physiochemical properties but also, their outstanding characteristics such as biodegradability and biocompatibility. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the recent developments on the involved PHA producer microorganisms, production process from different waste streams by both pure and mixed microbial cultures (MMCs). Bio-based PHA production, particularly using cheap carbon sources with MMCs, is getting more attention. The main bottlenecks are the low production yield and the inconsistency of the biopolymers. Bioaugmentation and metabolic engineering together with cost effective downstream processing are promising approaches to overcome the hurdles of commercial PHA production from waste streams. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

Increased awareness of environmental sustainability and strict environmental regulations have encouraged the search for novel materials to replace conventional petroleum-derived plastics. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are attractive due to their biodegradability and biocompatibility, but challenges remain in production yield and consistency. Bioaugmentation and metabolic engineering are promising approaches to overcome these hurdles in commercial PHA production from waste streams.