Synthesis and Production of Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) Biopolymers
A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2019) | Viewed by 12714
Special Issue Editors
Interests: polyhydroxyalkanoates; mixed cultures; bioethanol; bacterial cellulose; biorefineries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: biopolymers; polyhydroxyalkanoates; mixed cultures; waste/by-products valorisation; microbial ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Common plastics of fossil fuel origin are persistent in nature, representing a serious and growing environmental problem. These plastics can be replaced in diverse applications by bio-based polymers like polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). PHAs are biodegradable and can be produced from numerous wastes and by-products by more than 300 genera of prokaryotes.
PHAs act as internal carbon and energy reserves in bacteria, allowing for survival in environments that experience unbalanced nutritional conditions. One example of these conditions is the limitation of nutrients required for growth, such as oxygen or nitrogen, when carbon is present in excess. Another example is the alternation of periods of lack and availability of carbon sources. Also, due to the high diversity of monomers and the possibility to combine different monomers into the final polymer, a wide range of properties can be obtained for this class of polymers, from thermoplastics to elastomers, with a wide range of applications. Although PHAs can replace many types of petrol-derived plastics, their production price is not yet commercially attractive. Researchers in this field still need to tackle several challenges in order to make the industrial production of PHAs competitive with the well-established industry of conventional plastics. These challenges include high cell density processes, the use of cheap and fast metabolized substrates, fast-growing strains, low sterility processes, high cell contents, and easier downstream processing.
This Special Issue intends to cover the latest developments in this field including all types of producing microorganisms—pure, recombinant, and mixed microbial cultures. Topics will include the use of new raw materials as the substrate; the selection, enrichment, screening, and isolation of novel producers; reactor operation; metabolic engineering for production improvement; downstream processing; process scale-up; polymer characterization; and polymer applications/blends.
Prof. Luísa Seuanes Serafim
Dr. Paulo Costa Lemos
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Biopolymers
- Polyhydroxyalkanoates
- Bacterial production
- Mixed microbial cultures
- Recombinant organisms
- Cheap raw materials
- Downstream
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