Bioenergy Technology and Food Industry Waste Valorization for Integrated Production of Polyhydroxyalkanoates

The successful evolution toward the bioeconomy era necessitates the development of sustainable utilization of renewable resources for the production of chemicals, fuels and materials. The production of biodegradable polymers and the replacement of their petroleum-derived counterparts is one of the goals that should be fulfilled by the sustainable chemical industry. This can be achieved through the implementation of integrated biorefinery concepts combining the production of fuels and biodegradable polymers (e.g. biodiesel production from oilseeds). Integrated biorefineries could also be developed via restructuring current industrial sectors (e.g. food industry) through valorization of by-product and waste streams. This chapter presents the potential biorefinery concepts that could be developed for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates, an important family of polyesters with a wide spectrum of potential applications.