PHB into PHB: Recycling of polyhydroxybutyrate by a tandem “thermolytic distillation-microbial fermentation” process

Highly efficient polyhydroxybutyrate conversion into crotonic acid was achieved.Low temperature and no catalyst were used in the crotonic acid production.Renewed polyhydroxybutyrate was obtained by using crotonic acid and C. necator.High overall yield and low energy demand make this strategy feasible and promising.