This allows their
production to be independent of the oil industry. PHAs
are also biocompatible with a wide range of applications
in medicine, pharmacy, veterinary and food packaging.
Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) is the simplest and most
commonly produced PHA. Because of its competing ther-
moplastic and mechanical properties, which are similar to
plastics or elastomers derived from petroleum, it is gain-
ing interest as a substitute to conventional plastics
(Khanna and Srivastava 2005; Koller et al. 2010).