TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preferred Method: In the method of producing a monomer component from a genetically modified PHA biomass, the monomer component is glycolide, beta -propiolactone, 3-hydroxypropiolactone, acrylic acid, crotonic acid, delta -valerolactone, or their mixture. The biomass is dried prior to heating. The biomass is from a recombinant host selected from a plant crop, bacteria, a yeast, a fungi, an algae, a cyanobacteria, or their mixture. The host is bacteria selected from Escherichia coli, Alcaligenes eutrophus (renamed as Ralstonia eutropha), Bacillus spp., Alcaligenes latus, Azotobacter, Aeromonas, Comamonas, Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, Klebsiella, Synechococcus sp. PCC7002, Synechococcus sp. PCC7942, Synechocystis sp. PCC6803, Thermosynechococcus elongatus BP-I, Chlorobium tepidum, Chloroflexus aurianticus, Chromatium tepidum, Chromatium vinosum, Rhodospirillum rubrum, Rhodobacter capsulatus, and Rhodopseudomonas palustris. The host is a plant crop selected from tobacco, sugarcane, corn, switchgrass, Miscanthus sorghum, sweet sorghum, or their mixture. The polyhydroxyalkanoate is one or more selected from poly-3-hydroxypropionate, poly-3-hydroxybutyrate, poly-4-hydroxybutyrate, poly-5-hydroxyvalerate, or its copolymer. The heating is at 200-350 degrees C. The drying is at 100-175 degrees C. The dried biomass has a water content of 5 wt%, or less. The heating is for 1-30 minutes. The time period is 1-2 minutes. The method further comprises recovering the monomer component. The catalyst is a metal catalyst or an organic catalyst. The method further comprises modifying the monomer component by hydrogenation, esterification, amidation or their combination. The monomer component is crotonic acid, and further comprising reacting the crotonic acid forming a lower alkyl crotonate ester; and reacting the lower alkyl crotonate ester under suitable conditions to form a lower alkyl acrylate and a lower alkene via cross-metathesis in the presence of a first catalyst with a sufficient amount of proplylene, where the propylene is formed from a metathesis reaction of ethylene and 2-butene in the presence of a second catalyst and excess propylene is continuously removed. The monomer component is crotonic acid, and further comprising reacting the crotonic acid forming a lower alkyl crotonate ester; the reacting the crotonate in the presence of a second catalyst to form an alcohol. The first catalyst is a metathesis catalyst. The first catalyst is not exposed to ethylene. The first catalyst is a Hoveyda-Grubb's cross metathesis catalyst. The catalyst is 1,3-bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)-2-imidazolidinylidene-dichloro(o-isopropoxyphenylmethylene)ruthenium. The second catalyst is a metathesis catalyst. The lower alkyl is butyl, and the lower alkene is butene. The monomer is crotonic acid, and further comprising reacting the crotonic acid to form a butyl crotonate ester, and hydrogenating the butyl crotonate ester to form two moles of butanol. The biomass is dried prior to heating. The monomer is delta -valerolactone and the catalyst is a metal catalyst, where the metal catalyst is calcium hydroxide, and where weight percent of catalyst is 5-15%. The monomer component is crotonic acid and is further modified to fumaric acid, butene, maleic anhydride (MAN), 2-propylene, or acrylic acid. The PHA is polyglycolide and the monomer component is glycolide. The heating is pyrolysis, torrefaction or flash pyrolysis. The biomass is from a recombinant algae selected from Chlorella minutissima, Chlorella emersonii, Chlorella sorokiniana, Chlorella ellipsoidea, Chlorella sp., or Chlorella protothecoides. The monomer component contains less than 10% side products. The genetically modified biomass has an increased amount of PHA production compared to wild-type organism. In the continuous biorefinery processes above, the biomass is dried prior to heating. The biomass is from a recombinant host selected from a plant crop, bacteria, yeast, fungi, algae, cyanobacteria, or their mixture. The heating is pyrolysis, torrefaction or flash pyrolysis. The weight percent of catalyst is 5-15%. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.