Production
Polyhydroxyalcanoates (PHA) are bacteria-synthesized, intracellularly accumulated polyesters from saturated and unsaturated hydroxyalcanoic acids. They exist either as homopolymers or as copolymers of the various hydroxyalcanoic acids. From the large number of monomers capable of building PHA, from the possible variations in the linking of the monomers to the polymer, from variations in the chain length of the polymers, the possibility of producing blends from different PHA and the possibilityof additionally introducing chemical or physical modifications into the polymer skeleton, one derives an almost inexhaustible multiplicity within this polymer family. This great variety fundamentally assures the potential of producing PHA with extremely differing properties, thereby opening up a plethora of fields of application. Nevertheless, it is assumed that out of this fundamental multiplicity, only about 5 to 10 different polymers would be of interest for industrial production.