Thermoalkalophilic hydrolase of Paucimonas and Shewanella species with high specificity for amorphous polyesters of short chain-length hydroxyalkanoic acids. An unusual substrate specificity for amorphous poly((R)-3-hydroxyalkanoates PHA and no homologies to any other PHB depolymerase. Formerly included in Lipase_2. Family IX was introduced by Handrick et al. (Arpigny_Jaeger Family IX). Paper: Arpigny and Jaeger (1999).