{"id":22790,"date":"2017-12-06T11:42:54","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T16:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=22790"},"modified":"2022-03-16T12:20:06","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T16:20:06","slug":"bacteria-biodegradable-plastic-sunlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/bacteria-biodegradable-plastic-sunlight\/","title":{"rendered":"MSU Researchers Discover How to Make Cheaper Biodegradable Plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

A team of researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) has engineered a method to use a community of bacteria to <\/span>make biodegradable plastic from sunlight<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

This method removes the negative impact of synthetic plastic on the environment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA major problem is that most synthetic plastic today is not completely biodegradable, so it lasts for hundreds of years after being discarded, in landfills and in water ecosystems,\u201d <\/span>Taylor Weiss<\/span><\/a>, who led the research while he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Ducat lab at the <\/span>MSU-Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory<\/span><\/a> and is now an assistant professor in the Environmental and Resource Management Program at Arizona State University, said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers paired together two types of bacteria. The first, synthetic cyanobacteria, uses sunlight to create sugar. The other bacteria, Halomonas boliviensis, feeds off of the created sugars to produce essential materials used to make bioplastics. <\/span><\/p>\n

Essentially, the entire biotechnology industry is based on sugars, said <\/span>Daniel (Danny) Ducat<\/span><\/a>, senior author of the research and assistant professor at MSU\u2019s biochemistry and molecular biology department. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, we take sugars from plants (e.g. corn, sugarcane, sugarbeet) and feed them to yeast to get them to make ethanol,\u201d said Ducat. \u201cSo the question was: \u2018Can we get cyanobacteria to produce sugars even more effectively than a plant would?\u2019\u200c\u200a\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The team accomplished its goal. In doing so, the researchers found an environmentally friendly way to produce sugars capable of powering the production of many different types of bioproducts. <\/span><\/p>\n

In previous methods, scientists would feed loads of corn and sugar to plastic-producing bacteria. Although this method was proven efficient in creating biodegradable plastics, it is very expensive, requires many agricultural resources, and negatively impacts the environment. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The new method, using sugar created by cyanobacteria\u2019s reaction to sunlight, is proven to work 20 times faster than previous attempts, is cheaper, avoids fossil fuels for production, and aims to reduce plastics\u2019 impact on the environment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adding to the benefits of this practice, cyanobacteria grows plentifully in environments like iceberg walls or the edges of hot springs where crops can\u2019t grow. This lessens the need for agricultural land to grow the bacteria. <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of cyanobacteria doesn\u2019t \u201cnecessarily require the arable lands, or potable waters that plants do and would therefore not have as many negative environmental consequences as some of our current processes,\u201d said Ducat. <\/span><\/p>\n