Researchers at Berkeley Lab have used bacteria to bring biorenewability to recyclable plastics.
Jenny Nuss/Berkeley Lab
Scientists engineered microbes to make the ingredients for recyclable plastics – replacing finite, polluting petrochemicals with sustainable alternatives. The new approach shows that renewable, recyclable plastics are not only possible, but also outperform those from petrochemicals
Key Takeaways
- Researchers engineered E. coli to turn sugar from plants into the raw materials for biorenewable plastics.
- Those biorenewable plastics are called PDKs, a new type of plastic that can be efficiently recycled over and over again.
- Replacing petrochemicals with the bio alternative expanded the PDK’s working temperature, opening applications in the auto industry and beyond.
- With even modest improvements, using bio alternatives could be both greener and cheaper than petrochemicals in the near-term.
Plastic waste is a problem. Most plastics can’t be recycled, and many use finite, polluting petrochemicals as the basic ingredients. But that’s changing. In a study published today in Nature Sustainability, researchers successfully engineered microbes to make biological alternatives for the starting ingredients in an infinitely recyclable plastic known as poly(diketoenamine), or PDK.
The finding comes from collaboration among experts at three facilities at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab): the Molecular Foundry, the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), and the Advanced Light Source.
“This is the first time that bioproducts have been integrated to make a PDK that is predominantly bio-based,” said Brett Helms, staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry who led the project. “And it’s the first time that you see a bio-advantage over using petrochemicals, both with respect to the material’s properties and the cost of producing it at scale.”
Unlike traditional plastics, PDK can be repeatedly deconstructed into pristine building blocks and formed into new products with no loss in quality. PDKs initially used building blocks derived from petrochemicals, but those ingredients can be redesigned and produced with microbes instead. Now, after four years of effort, collaborators have manipulated E. coli to turn sugars from plants into some of the starting materials – a molecule known as triacetic acid lactone, or bioTAL – and produced a PDK with roughly 80% bio-content.
“We’ve demonstrated that the pathway to 100% bio-content in recyclable plastics is feasible,” said Jeremy Demarteau, a project scientist on the team contributing to biopolymer development. “You’ll see that from us in the future.”
PDKs can be used for a variety of products, including adhesives, flexible items like computer cables or watch bands, building materials, and “tough thermosets,” rigid plastics made through a curing process. Researchers were surprised to find that incorporating the bioTAL into the material expanded its working temperature range by up to 60 degrees Celsius compared to the petrochemical version. This opens the door to using PDKs in items that need specific working temperatures, including sports gear and automotive parts such as bumpers or dashboards.
Solving the plastic waste problem
The United Nations Environment Program estimates that we globally produce about 400 million tons of plastic waste every year, and that number is predicted to climb to more than 1 billion tons by 2050. Of the 7 billion tons of plastic waste already created, only about 10 percent has been recycled, while most is discarded into landfills or burned.
“We can’t keep using our dwindling supply of fossil fuels to feed this insatiable desire for plastics,” said Jay Keasling, a professor at UC Berkeley, senior faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Biosciences Area, and the CEO of JBEI. “We want to help solve the plastic waste problem by creating materials that are both biorenewable and circular – and providing an incentive for companies to use them. Then people could have the products they need for the time they need them, before those items are transformed into something new.”
The study released today also builds on a 2021 environmental and technological analysis, which showed that PDK plastic could be commercially competitive with conventional plastics if produced at a large scale.
“Our new results are extremely encouraging,” said Corinne Scown, a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area and a vice president at JBEI. “We found that with even modest improvements to the production process, we could soon be making bio-based PDK plastics that are both cheaper and emit less CO2 than those made with fossil fuels.”
Those improvements would include speeding up the rate at which microbes convert sugars to bioTAL, using bacteria that can transform a wider variety of plant-derived sugars and other compounds, and powering the facility with renewable energy.
Original Article: Making Renewable, Infinitely Recyclable Plastics Using Bacteria
More from: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | Joint BioEnergy Institute
The Latest Updates from Bing News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Infinitely recyclable plastics,
- How to recycle in the UK
multi-layered packaging that contains different materials such as metal and plastic film is harder to recycle than packaging made of one material, so if simple packaging is a viable alternative, ...
- Another Voice: Plastics must be addressed at the source
Plastic waste makes up 80% of all marine pollution and it’s predicted that by 2050, plastics may outweigh all of the fish in the oceans. Cost estimates for clean-up have ...
- Hopes fade for production curbs in new global pact on plastic pollution
Governments could not agree to keep talking formally about limiting plastic production up until the final round of treaty talks in November ...
- Exclusive: inside Honda's new concept EV that has an infinitely recyclable design – and looks like a Honda e
Honda displays the Sustaina-C Concept at Milan Design Week, showcasing a future where car panels can be broken down and recycled time and time again.
- China stopped taking our plastic. Now America is drowning in it.
America has long had a plastic problem. It's an urgent question — what do we do with the 40 million tons of plastic waste we produce annually? One year of plastic waste is roughly enough to smother ...
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Biorenewable plastics
- Patch-testing with Plastics and Glues Series Allergens
Background: Few US studies have reported results of patch testing with plastics and glues. Objective: To report our institution's results of testing patients suspected of allergy to plastics and ...
- Global plastic treaty talks are happening. What do stakeholders want?
April 22 (Reuters) - Global leaders will gather in Canada's capital this week to discuss progress in drafting a first-ever global treaty to rein in soaring plastic pollution by the end of the year.
- You Might Be Recycling Your Plastics the Wrong Way. What to Know
Katie is a writer covering all things how-to at CNET, with a focus on Social Security and notable events. When she's not writing, she enjoys playing in golf scrambles, practicing yoga and spending ...
- You Might Be Recycling Your Plastics the Wrong Way. What to Know
April 22 is Earth Day, and if you're looking for ways to start helping the environment, recycling your plastics is a great start. Note that simply tossing any or all of your plastics into the ...
- The foods with the most plastics may surprise many
NEW YORK — “How much plastic will you have for dinner, sir? And you, ma’am?” While that may seem like a line from a satirical skit on Saturday Night Live, research is showing it’s much ...