produção de pha e phb

Quim. Nova, Vol. 30, No. 7, 1732-1743, 2007

Revisão

PRODUÇÃO BIOTECNOLÓGICA DE POLI-HIDROXIALCANOATOS PARA A GERAÇÃO DE POLÍMEROS
BIODEGRADÁVEIS NO BRASIL
Luiziana Ferreira da Silva* e José Gregório Cabrera Gomez
Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 1374,
05508-000 São Paulo – SP, Brasil
Rafael Costa Santos Rocha, Marilda Keico Taciro e José Geraldo da Cruz Pradella
Centro de Tecnologia de Processo e Produtos, Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas do Estado de São Paulo S.A.,
Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, 532, 05508-901 São Paulo – SP, Brasil
Recebido em 4/9/06; aceito em 17/11/06; publicado na web 29/8/07

BIOTECHNOLOGICAL PRODUCTION OF POLYHYDROXYALKANOATES IN BRAZIL FOR BIODEGRADABLE
POLYMERS. In recent years, several studies have been developed in Brazil to produce biodegradable materials. A particular family of bacterial polymers, the polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), has received special attention. PHAs are thermoplastic, biodegradable, biocompatible, are synthesised from renewable resources and can substitute petrochemical plastics in some applications. Different aspects have been focused to increase productivity and to reduce the cost of PHA production: bacterial improvement, use of industrial by-products as raw material, bioreactor design, process operation strategies, downstream process, mathematical modelling, polymer characterisation, application and biodegradability of blends. A production process was transferred to industry and studies to produce new PHA by controlling monomer composition are in progress. All these aspects are presented in this review.
Keywords: polyhydroxyalkanoates; microbial polyester; biodegradable polymers.

INTRODUÇÃO
O avanço do preço internacional do barril de petróleo, a instabilidade da situação geopolítica das regiões detentoras das grandes reservas mundiais e o consenso mundial da necessidade do desenvolvimento de tecnologias de