What are PHAs?

PHAs are a group of over 150 known polymers mostly of bacterial origin, differing in functional groups and varying properties. The polymer discovered in the late 1920s and commercialized in the 1980s did not succeed in the market due to its high cost of production. Polyhydroxyalkanoates account for a mere 1.2% of global bioplastic production of 2.22 million metric tonnes compared to the global plastic production of 400.3 million metric tonnes in 2022.

Under stressed conditions such as nutrient limitation, oxygen deficiency-specific bacteria store the excess carbon available in their microenvironment as PHA granules. These polymer granules are inert and hydrophobic in nature and can constitute up to 90% of the cell space. These granules can be extracted from the bacterial cells and have properties similar to that of polypropylene.