Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology

Abstract

Polyhydroxy Alkanoates - A Sustainable Alternative to Petro-Based Plastics

Gupta Divya, Tiwari Archana and Ramirez Alejandro Manzano

Industrial growth, urbanization and wrong agricultural practices are responsible for pollution and loss of environmental quality. Petro plastics, produced from mineral resources, are one of the most important materials, but the production process destructs the environment. Bio-based and biodegradable plastics can form the basis for environmentally preferable and sustainable alternative to current materials based exclusively on petroleum feed stocks. Bioplastic helps us to overcome the problem of pollution caused by synthetic plastics as they originate from renewable resources and are a new generation of plastics able to significantly reduce the environmental impact in terms of energy consumption and greenhouse effect. Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) emerges as a potential candidate in a way to be used as a biopolymer material which not only possesses the characteristic similar to the traditional plastic, but it is also biodegradable in nature without any toxic production .A way to reduce the production cost is the use of alternative substrates, such as the agro industrial wastes. This review gives an overview of economical strategies to reduce production costs of PHA as well as its applications in various fields.