Near zero-waste biofuel production from bioderived polyhydroxybutyrate

[Display omitted] High carbon- and energy-recovery for fuel production from biomass has been pursued as a target for decades, but rarely achieved. This study find poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is an ideal biofeedstock for the production of easy-to-use fuels via a simple one-pot catalytic hydrogenolysis at 200 °C, in the absence of any solvent. Such process offers two merits, namely near zero-waste and ultrahigh carbon- and energy-recovery rate (being 99% and 91.5%, respectively). •Near zero-waste production of high-quality biofuels from poly(3-hydroxybutyrate).•Achievement of 99% carbon utilization for the biomass-to-fuel conversion.•Achievement of a high energy recovery of 91.5% among almost all biofuel production.•One-pot catalytic hydrogenolysis at mild conditions in absence of any solvents. 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.