TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preferred Method: The method (M2) for converting carbon-containing material into PHA, involves (A) (a) contacting a culture of methanotrophic microorganisms with a medium comprising copper, one or more of additional nutrients and carbon-containing material that can be metabolized by the culture, thus inducing growth of the culture, (b) reducing or controlling the concentration of copper in the medium to cause at least a portion of the culture to produce sMMO and/or pMMO, where the copper concentration can cause one or more methanotrophic microorganism to produce sMMO, (c) reducing the concentration of at least one of the nutrients in medium to cause at least a portion of the culture to utilize sMMO or pMMO to convert the carbon from carbon-containing material into PHA, and (d) repeating steps (a)-(c) several times, where the portion of culture utilizing pMMO to generate PHA grows and/or generates PHA at a greater rate than the portion of culture utilizing sMMO to generate PHA, thus inducing a selective pressure in the culture resulting in a culture comprising essentially only microorganisms that use pMMO to produce PHA, or (B) (a) contacting methanotrophic culture with medium comprising one or more nutrients and carbon-containing material that can be metabolized by the culture, (b) controlling the concentration of one or more nutrients in the medium to cause at least a portion of the culture to produce sMMO and/or pMMO, (c) controlling the concentration of one or more nutrients in the medium to cause culture to produce PHA, and (d) repeating steps (a)-(c) several times, or (C) (a) providing a microorganism culture, (b) providing a medium comprising one or more nutrient comprising a carbon-containing material that can be metabolized by the culture, (c) controlling concentration of one or more nutrients in the medium to cause the cellular replication of one or more microorganisms in the culture, where the genetic material encoding ethylmalonyl-CoA pathway is present in one or more microorganisms, (d) controlling the concentration of one or more nutrients in the medium to cause the culture to produce PHA, and (e) repeating steps (a)-(d), or (D) (a) providing a microorganism culture, (b) providing a medium comprising one or more nutrients comprising a carbon-containing material that can be metabolized by the culture, (c) controlling the concentration of one or more nutrients in the medium to cause cellular replication of one or more microorganisms in the culture, where the genetic material encoding ethylmalonyl-CoA pathway is present in one or more microorganisms, and the expression of soluble methane monooxygenase is reduced in one or more microorganisms as compared to first instance of step (a), (d) controlling the concentration of one or more nutrients in the medium to cause the culture to produce PHA, and (e) repeating steps (a)-(d). The method (M3) for controlling functional characteristics of PHA produced by methanotrophic culture exposed to methane and one or more nonmethane materials that influence metabolism of the culture, involves (a) providing methanotrophic culture in a medium comprising one or more nutrients, (b) controlling the concentration of one or more of nutrients in the medium to cause the culture to produce sMMO and/or pMMO, (c) controlling the concentration of one or more nutrients in the medium to cause the culture to produce PHA, and (d) repeating steps (a)-(c), where the concentration of sMMO relative to pMMO in step (c) is substantially the same in each repetition, and one or more functional characteristics of the PHA produced by the culture are controlled in multiple PHA production repetitions, and the culture selectively generates microorganisms that synthesize PHA at high efficiency. The method (M4) for modifying functional characteristics of PHA, involves (A) (a) providing PHA and a biomass, (b) subjecting the PHA and/or biomass to a processing step in order to render at least a portion of biomass miscible with PHA, (c) combining the PHA and biomass in a mixture to form a compound, (d) heating the compound at 50-250 degrees C, and (e) causing the biomass to effect functional modification of PHA, where the functional modification comprises plasticization, nucleation, compatibilization, melt flow modification, strengthening and/or elasticizaton, or (B) (a) providing PHA and biomass, (b) combining PHA and biomass in a mixture to form a compound, and (c) heating the compound at 100-250 degrees C, or (C) (a) providing PHA, biomass, and nonPHA polymer, (b) combining PHA, nonPHA polymer and biomass in a mixture to form a compound, and (c) heating the compound at 100-250 degrees C. The method (M5) for improving the functional characteristics of PHA polymer through melting and cooling of PHA polymer in the presence of dual-miscible biomass agent and a second polymer, involves (a) providing a first polymer, biomass, and second polymer, where the first polymer is PHA, (b) subjecting the biomass to a processing step chosen from heat, pressure, solvent washing, filtration, centrifugation, supercritical solvent extraction, and/or shear, where the processing step renders at least a portion of biomass miscible with first polymer and second polymer, (c) contacting the first polymer with biomass and second polymer to form a compound, (d) heating the compound at 50-250 degrees C, thus causing the biomass to effect a functional modification of first polymer, second polymer and their combinations, where the functional modification comprises plasticization, nucleation, compatibilization, melt flow modification, strengthening, and/or elasticization. The method (M6) for synthesizing PHA in biomass material, involves (A) (a) providing a medium comprising a biomass capable of metabolizing a source of carbon, and (b) increasing the concentration of one or more nutrients in medium to cause biomass to synthesize PHA or increase the synthesis rate of PHA relative to the synthesis rate of nonPHA material, or (B) (a) providing a medium comprising a biomass and one or more nutrients, and (b) increasing the concentration of one or more of nutrients in medium to cause biomass to metabolically synthesize PHA by using the biomass as source of carbon for the production of PHA, or (C) (a) providing a medium comprising a biomass metabolizing a source of carbon, and (b) increasing or maintaining above a minimum the concentration of an element in the medium to cause the biomass to synthesize PHA or increase the synthesis rate of PHA relative to the synthesis rate of nonPHA material, or (D) (a) providing a medium comprising biomass and an element, and (b) maintaining above a minimum concentration or increasing the concentration of the element in the medium to cause the biomass material to metabolically synthesize PHA at the expense of alternative biomass energy and/or carbon storage materials. The selection pressure is induced for microorganisms in which the presence or expression of gene encoding the sMMO is reduced. The repetition of steps (a)-(c) of method (M2) is performed for microorganisms in which the expression of gene encoding sMMO is reduced, and the above step favors the production of microorganisms that possess genetic material encoding ethylmalonyl-CoA pathway. The concentration of one or more microorganisms in the culture increases as steps (a)-(c) of method (M2) are repeated. The nutrient of steps (b) and (c) of method (M2) are same or different. The step (b) of method (M2) involves periodically or permanently reducing the concentration of copper in the medium to effect the production of pMMO in the culture, or periodically or permanently increasing, reducing, or maintaining concentration of the nutrients in the medium to effect the production of microorganisms that possess genetic material encoding ethylmalonyl-CoA pathway. The step (c) of method (M2) involves periodically or permanently increasing, reducing or maintaining the concentration of nutrient in medium to effect the production of microorganisms that do not possess gene encoding soluble methane monooxygenase. The expression of gene encoding soluble methane monooxygenase enzyme is reduced in the culture as the method (M2) is repeated. The nongaseous material comprises biomass of microorganism removed from a first instance of step (a) and added to the medium in a second instance of step (a) of method (M2). The controlling of actual and/or bioavailable concentration of copper in the medium effects the production of microorganisms that do not possess gene encoding soluble methane monooxygenase or express sMMO at reduced amounts. The steps (a)-(d) are repeated several times and the concentration of one or more microorganisms in the culture increases as the steps (a)-(d) are repeated. The concentration of sMMO relative to pMMO in the culture is substantially the same in step (c) in at least two consecutive repetitions. The step (b) of method (M6) causes reduction in the rate of production of nonPHA biomass relative to the rate of production of PHA in the biomass. The processing step involves treating the PHA and/or biomass with one or more of the treatments chosen from heat, shear, pressure, solvent extraction, washing, filtration, centrifugation, sonication, enzymatic treatment, supercritical material treatment, cellular dissolution, flocculation, acid and/or base treatment, drying, lysing, and chemical treatment. The process for extracting PHA from PHA-containing biomass slurry is performed at a pressure which is above or below atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 0-250 degrees C. The step (b) of the process involves reducing the amount of liquid in biomass slurry before, during, and/or after the step (a). The amount of liquid in slurry is reduced by 0.1-100%. The step (b) of the process further involves subjecting biomass slurry to one or more of the methods chosen from centrifugation, filtration, distillation, spray-drying, flash drying, lyophilization, air-drying, oven drying and their combinations. The process further involves increasing the amount of liquid in the slurry before, during, and/or after said step (a), where the step involves increasing the amount of liquid to result in a solid concentration in the slurry of less than 1 g/l, preferably less than 5 g/l, more preferably less than 100 g/l, most preferably less than 1000 g/l. Preferred Components: The actual and/or bioavailable concentration of copper in the medium is reduced to a concentration of less than 0.001 mg/l, preferably 0.5 mu M, or less than 100 mg/l, preferably 10 mg/l, more preferably 1 mg/l, or less than 0.1 mg/dry weight gram of the microorganisms. The reduction of nutrient comprises a substantial depletion of nitrogen from the media. The transformed culture produces PHA at a concentration of at least 70% of the dry biomass weight of microorganisms. The culture comprising essentially of only microorganisms which use pMMO to produce PHA, comprises over 50%, preferably 80% of the culture. The carbon-containing material comprises a gas and a nongaseous material, where the nongaseous material comprises one or more of volatile fatty acids. The carbon-containing gas comprises methane, carbon dioxide or one or more of volatile organic compounds and the nongaseous material comprises methanol, one or more of acetate, acetone or acetic acid, one or more of formate, formaldehyde or formic acid, and one or more of propane or ethane. The nutrients are chosen from copper, oxygen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, boron, sodium, calcium, nitrogen, iron, EDTA, citric acid, manganese, zinc, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, methane, hydroxyl ions, hydrogen ions, sulfate, carbon dioxide and their combinations. The one or more microorganisms belong to Methylocystis. The PHA produced by culture exhibits substantially the same of one or more of characteristics chosen from molecular weight, polydispersity, impact strength, elasticity, elongation and/or modulus, in one or more repetitions. The nonmethane material comprises carbon dioxide, volatile organic compound, volatile fatty acid, methanol, one or more of acetate, acetone, and acetic acid, formate, formaldehyde, and formic acid, one or more of propane and ethane, oxygen, and a carbon-containing material that can be metabolized by the culture. At least 60% of microorganisms in the culture produce only pMMO and sMMO. The culture comprises an equal concentration of sMMO and pMMO, or the concentration of sMMO is 2 times, preferably 5 times, more preferably 10 times greater than the concentration of pMMO in the culture, or the concentration of pMMO is 2 times, preferably 5 times greater than the concentration of sMMO in the culture. The biomass comprises one or more of methanotrophic, autotrophic and heterotrophic biomass. The biomass is present in compound at a concentration of more than 0.001%, preferably 0.01%. The biomass comprises one or more microorganisms chosen from methanotrophic microorganisms, heterotrophic microorganisms, autotrophic microorganisms, or methanogenic microorganisms. The liquid is methanol, water, carbon dioxide, solvent, super critical fluid, polymer, additive, plasticizer and/or other fluid. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.