Microbiological Production of Polyhydroxbutyrates From Renewable Sources
Plastics play an important role in our daily lives and are used for various purposes. The industry of environmentally friendly products is actively developing in our time, including bioplastics, and much attention of scientists is attracted by biodegradable polymers such as polyhydroxyalacanoates or its subspecies polyhydroxybutyrates, which are synthesized by various microorganisms as a reserve substance, and are also the most acceptable replacement for conventional synthetic plastics. However, the cost of large-scale production of such a biodegradable polymer is not competitive with its wide distribution. Studies of the microbial production of polyhydroxybutyrates should be aimed at identifying cost-effective substrates, as well as determining the appropriate strain of the body for production. These biopolymers have a number of specific properties, such as biodegradability and compatibility with living body tissue, which opens up great opportunities for their use in practice. The final product of polyhydroxybutyrates biodegradation in the environment is water and carbon dioxide, and in a living organism 3-butobutyric acid. The main focus of this review was the production of bioplastics from various economical substrates using various types of bacteria.