Future Development of PHA-Based Industry

To help the commercial appHcations of PHAs, two aspects should be considered. The first one is to lower the production costs of PHA and the second is to find high value added appHcations of PHAs. Much effort has been directed to these two aspects, besides the basic research 

To lower PHA production costs, genetic engineering technology, pathway modification, or even synthetic biology approaches should be taken to develop super 

Low-cost PHAs would not only benefit the PHA material application as bioplastics, but promote the application of PHAs as biofuels as well. There is a large potential for compromise in this area, as low-cost PHAs could also be obtained from activated sludge and wastewater fermentation, so it will not run into the controversy of food versus fuel or fuel versus arable land. Plant production of PHAs could become a reality, as indicated by some promising results, in the foreseeable future. 

We now have the capacity to produce PHAs containing various blocks such as PHB-/)-PHV or PHB-/)-PHBV, and PHB-f)-PHA. These block PHAs have been found to show new properties. More PHB block copolymers are under development and they have the potential to generate more unique applications. 

Thanks to cost-competitive PHAs being developed, low-cost applications should also be developed. These include the new processing technology that can exploit the existing extruders and other molding machines used to make products from common plastics such as polyethylene and polypropylene. In addition, the blending of PHAs with cheaper materials such as starch and cellulose will reduce the cost even further without the loss of degradability and sustainability. 

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