Cyanobacterial PHA Production—Review of Recent Advances and a Summary of Three Years’ Working Experience Running a Pilot Plant

Cyanobacteria, as photoautotrophic organisms, provide the opportunity to convert CO2 to biomass with light as the sole energy source. Like many other prokaryotes, especially under nutrient deprivation, most cyanobacteria are able to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) as intracellular energy and carbon storage compounds. In contrast to heterotrophic PHA producers, photoautotrophic cyanobacteria do not consume sugars and, therefore, do not depend on agricultural crops, which makes them a green alternative production system. This review summarizes the recent advances in cyanobacterial PHA production. Furthermore, this study reports the working experience with different strains and cultivating conditions in a 200 L pilot plant. The tubular photobioreactor was built at the coal power plant in Dürnrohr, Austria in 2013 for direct utilization of flue gases. The main challenges were the selection of robust production strains, process optimization, and automation, as well as the CO2 availability.