2-Ethyl-2-hydroxybutyric acid was used as internal standard during quantification of medium-chain-length bacterial poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate) by gas chromatography. It was used as ligand to study the effect of anionic and cationic surfactants on kinetics of electron transfer reaction from organic sulfides to [CrV(ehba)2]-(ehba=2-ethyl-2-hydroxy butyric acid).