2024-02-21 09:02:28
The 2 in 1 method can save the planet from pollution and generate useful material
A bacterium can turn plastic waste into an eco-friendly and super-healthy material. This was reported in the journal Microbial Cell Factories by researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Not only does the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa have a natural appetite for polyethylene plastic, it can transform it into an extremely tough and flexible web-like tissue. The generated product can be stretched up to 5 times and also creased easily.
“The new matter that can be created from plastic waste,
is something like natural Kevlar
It has the potential to be almost as strong as steel, but is 6 times less dense, so much lighter,” explains Helen Zha, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, one of the scientists leading the project. According to her, the new material is elastic, strong, non-toxic and most importantly – biodegradable – something like “spider silk”.
The technological process, detailed in Microbial Cell Factories, begins with the depolymerization of polyethylene, a step in which the otherwise resistant nylon breaks down into a substance that can be eaten by Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria. Their role is to cause a kind of fermentation, which after 72 hours creates a silk protein similar to cotton balls. This is the source material that can be further processed to create usable shapes.
“The method is low-energy, non-toxic. Nature’s best chemists could not achieve this transformation, but these bacteria did,” explains Zha.
So far, the microbial conversion of plastic substrates into biomaterials has been limited to the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates. Expanding the microbial conversion of plastic waste could serve to promote such technologies to a greater extent and a more sustainable materials economy, the researchers believe.
The team now hopes to quickly overcome the challenges and be able to introduce the promising discovery into larger-scale and sustainable production of the material for commercial purposes. “Our study found that we can use these bacteria to turn plastic into spider webs. Our next steps include process optimization. We have yet to investigate whether changing the bacteria or other aspects can allow us to increase production,” explains Professor Mateos Kofas, quoted by ZME Science.
This is not the first time
scientists rely on bacteria to save the world from polyethylene plastic
The scientific publications Frontiers in Microbiology and Marine Pollution Bulletin recently reported on microorganisms that can not only generate alternatives, but also “digest” plastic.
Any new research in the fight against plastics is welcome. Global production of the product has increased steadily since 1950 and is set to reach a staggering 390.7 million metric tons in 2021, reports Statista. Since the polyethylene from which disposable packaging is made does not degrade, its accumulation in the soil leads to irreversible environmental problems.
However, the problem with non-degradable plastic is not just about visible single-use packaging. Microplastics are no less a threat. Scientists reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they examined water bottles for plastic particles up to 100 nanometers in size. The study found that some bottles could contain between 110,000 and 370,000 plastic fragments, of which 90% were identified as nanoplastics and the remaining 10% as microplastics.