ABSTRACT
The application of additive manufacturing (AM) approaches to polymer processing is showing great potential to impact the global consumer market and specialized industrial areas, such as the aerospace and medical device sectors. A great challenge in this context is integrating the high versatility of AM, in terms of automation degree and customization of product composition, shape, and microstructure, with the sustainable development aspects of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production. This chapter is aimed at providing an updated overview of published research on PHA processing by means of AM. Processing properties and requirements of PHA with particular reference to AM are discussed in this regard. Theoretical and applicative aspects of the different AM techniques (i.e., selective laser sintering, fused deposition modeling, and computer-aided wet-spinning) applied so far to process PHA are outlined. In addition, investigations reporting on AM processing of different types of PHA, i.e., poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx), possibly in combination with bioactive ceramics (i.e., calcium phosphate), are critically reviewed.
