The aim of the PHAt pro­ject is to invest­ig­ate new bio-based and bio­de­grad­able raw mater­i­als for use in lub­ric­ants and sol­id film lub­ric­ants. The focus is on the devel­op­ment of envir­on­ment­ally friendly thicken­ers. While cur­rently used thicken­ers are often based on envir­on­ment­ally unfriendly met­al soaps or con­tain flu­or­ine, the pro­ject is pur­su­ing a com­pletely new approach. The con­sor­ti­um is invest­ig­at­ing wheth­er the bio-based and bio­de­grad­able poly­mers poly­hy­droxyalkanoates (PHAs) in mod­i­fied form are suit­able as thicken­ers. The PHAs are pro­duced in bac­teria, isol­ated and then chem­ic­ally mod­i­fied in order to obtain optim­al flow prop­er­ties in the lub­ric­ant. At the same time, the lub­ric­ant should remain tem­per­at­ure and oxy­gen stable without impair­ing the bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity of the thicken­er. If the pro­ject is suc­cess­ful, improved and at the same time envir­on­ment­ally friendly thicken­ers for the lub­ric­ant industry will be produced.