Colorado State University chemists create synthetic PHA platform

In Colorado, they’ve been called “dream” plastics: polyhydroxyalkanoates, or PHAs. Already the basis of a fledgling industry, they’re a class of polymers naturally created by living microorganisms, or synthetically produced from biorenewable feedstocks. They’re biodegradable in the ambient environment, including oceans and soil.

But there’s a reason PHAs haven’t taken off as a sustainable, environmentally benign alternative to traditional plastics. Crystalline PHAs are brittle, so not as durable and convenient as conventional plastics. They cannot easily be melt-processed and recycled, making them expensive to produce.

Colorado State University polymer chemists have created a synthetic PHA platform that addresses each of these problems, paving the way for a future in which PHAs can take off in the marketplace as truly sustainable plastics.