Microbial Polyester which Was Produced from Plant Oil as a Raw Material

Abstract

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are thermoplastics which accumulated in the bodies of many kinds of bacteria, and various applications are expected as environmentally friendly type plastics, because they are biodegraded to water and carbon dioxide by bacteria in the environment. PHBH is a kind of PHAs which consists of 3-hydroxybutanoic acid (3HB) and 3-hydroxyhexanoic acid (3HH), and is produced by bacteria using plant oils or fatty acids as a carbon source. PHBH is expected that it is possible to apply to various fields, because it indicates wide properties according to the 3HH monomer ratio, and we have studied commercial production technologies and the processing technologies.