Near zero-waste biofuel production from bioderived polyhydroxybutyrate

Abstract Fuel production from biomass offers a low-carbon strategy to address the global challenge of climate change associated with carbon emission. Novel technique with high carbon- and energy-recovery from biomass has been pursued for decades, but rarely achieved. Here we demonstrate the near zero-waste production of high-quality biofuels from poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), a biofeedstock widely accumulated in microorganisms, under mild temperature (200 °C), with 99% carbon utilization and 91.5% energy recovery. Products are dominated by easy-to-use alkanes, butyrates and butanol. This technique paves the way for green production of biofuels from bioderived feedstocks.