7. PHAs production from oils
Various plant oils have been tested and proven as effective carbon sources towards polyhydroxyalkanoates biosynthesis with interesting material properties. The physical and material properties
of PHAs depend on their monomer composition and chemical
structure for example the length of the pendent groups in the
polymer backbone, their chemical nature or the distance between
the ester linkages (Rai et al., 2011) (Fig. 3). It is well known that the
structure of the substrate, the PHAs system synthesis or the
degradation pathway of the carbon source have an influence on
PHAs composition synthesized from fatty acids (de Ward et al.,
1993). The type of monomer incorporated in the polymer chain is
affected by the microorganism used, the culture conditions and the
type of plant oil. There are several reports in the literature of PHAs
production from oils. Table 2 summaries the types of PHAs and
their contents produced by bacteria grown on plant oils.