Life Cycle Assessment applied to polyhydroxyalkanoates production phases: a mini review

Bio-based polymers have gained more and more attention, because of their foreseen potential of substitution of conventional petrochemical plastic. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are polyesters naturally produced by microorganisms, that are natural, renewables, biocompatible and completely biodegradable while having similar properties to commonly used plastic. However, their industrial production is still more expensive than the petroleum-based one. To make PHA marketable on a large scale, it is therefore necessary to optimize every single phase of their production. This process must be accompanied by environmental assessments, to verify that PHA are a greener alternative to conventional plastic. To do this, the best tool currently available is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The purpose of this study is to examine the state of the art regarding the application of the LCA methodology to all phases of PHA production, that comprehend: the feedstock selection and processing, the biorefinery PHA synthesis and the downstream process of PHA extraction and purification.