Current status and future perspectives on the biological production of polyhydroxyalkanoates

Nowadays, the environmental pollution caused by conventional petroleum-based plastics is one of the most serious problems facing mankind, and it is of great significance to look for alternative plastics with biodegradable feature. Notably, the bioplastics based on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) have been a focus on research and development during the past several decades. In this review, the recent advances on the biological production of PHA were summarized, mainly including biosynthetic pathways and methods, followed by the extraction processes. Furthermore, the current status on PHA production using industrial waste streams was also discussed. For the moment, the relative higher production cost hindered the large-scale biological production of PHA. Therefore, some insightful strategies were presented about the future research and scale production on biological production of PHA.