Polyhydroxyalkanoate Monsanto

Metabolix Inc., is a private firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, that was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and acquired biopolymer technology from Monsanto Inc. in 2001. Metabolix began its first commercial production of organic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) resin, based on corn sugar in 2005 at an undisclosed location in the Midwest. The plant was expected to produce around 100 tonnes of material in 2005 and close to 1000 tonnes in 2006. 

Polyhydroxyalkanoates are produced by bacteria for storage purposes.318 Monsanto (formerly Zeneca) formerly produced 1000 tons/yr of a random copolymer of 3-... 

Asrar J, Mitsky TA, Shah DT (2000) Polyhydroxyalkanoates of narrow molecular weight distribution prepared in transgenic plants. Monsanto Company, St Louis, MO... 

Microbial polymers (e.g. poly(3)-hydroxybutyrate-hydroxyvalerate) are excreted or stored by micro organisms cultivated on starch hydrolysates or lipidic mediums. Isolation and purification costs could be high for those products that are obtained Ifom complex mixtures. Monsanto stopped the commercialisation of its product Biopol in 1999. Since then, production has been low but some new producers are entering the market (e.g. Coopeazucar in Brazil which has built new facilities for a pilot plant production of these polyhydroxyalkanoates). 

The best known biopolymer types are the polyhydroxyalkanoates, mainly poly(hydroxybutyrates) and copolymers of hydroxy butyrate (HB) and hydroxyvaler-ate (HV). Such copolymers are produced by Monsanto and are better known by the generic trade name Biopol2 . Polyhydroxyalkanoates function in microorganisms as energy substrates and for carbon storage. 

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