title: Producing microbial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolyesters in a sustainable manner.
abstract: Sustainable production of microbial polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolyesters on a larger scale has to consider the "four magic e": economic, ethical, environmental, and engineering aspects. Moreover, sustainability of PHA production can be quantified by modern tools of Life Cycle Assessment. Economic issues are to a large extent affected by the applied production mode, downstream processing, and, most of all, by the selection of carbon-rich raw materials as feedstocks for PHA production by safe and naturally occurring wild type microorganisms. In order to comply with ethics, such raw materials should be used which do not interfere with human nutrition and animal feed supply chains, and shall be convertible towards accessible carbon feedstocks by simple methods of upstream processing. Examples were identified in carbon-rich waste materials from various industrial braches closely connected to food production. Therefore, the article shines a light on hetero-, mixo-, and autotrophic PHA production based on various industrial residues from different branches. Emphasis is devoted to the integration of PHA-production based on selected raw materials into the holistic patterns of sustainability; this encompasses the choice of new, powerful microbial production strains, non-hazardous, environmentally benign methods for PHA recovery, and reutilization of waste streams from the PHA production process itself.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz, NAWI Graz, Heinrichstrasse 28/III, 8010 Graz, Austria; ARENA - Association for Resource Efficient and Sustainable Technologies, Inffeldgasse 21b, 8010 Graz, Austria. Electronic address: martin.koller@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor-Mendel-Strasse 33, 1180 Wien (Vienna), Austria.
authors.forename: Lukáš
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maršálek
authors.affiliation: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, INSERM, CNRS, Institut de la Vision, 17 rue Moreau, 75012 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Miguel Miranda
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: de Sousa Dias
authors.affiliation: ARENA - Association for Resource Efficient and Sustainable Technologies, Inffeldgasse 21b, 8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Gerhart
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Braunegg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056804:Biofuels; D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology; D001709:Biotechnology; D019649:Food Industry; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D055772:Green Chemistry Technology; D006801:Humans; D007218:Industrial Microbiology; D007220:Industrial Waste; D059013:Microbial Consortia / Q000235:genetics; D054813:Polyhydroxyalkanoates / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D000067796:Whey
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D007220:Industrial Waste; D054813:Polyhydroxyalkanoates
keywords: Biopolyesters; Feedstocks; Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA); Production strains; Sustainability; Upstream processing