Bio-plastics from safe plants to the environment

Metabolix, a biotech company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says it is developing synthetic bioplastics from plants to replace oil-based plastics that cause environmental damage. hundreds of years of decomposition.

The research focused on the technique of creating a biodegradable polymer called polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) - a part of the polyhydroxyalkanoate polymer (PHA) polymer family that Metabolix has provided to plastics manufacturers. It is notable that PHB can be extracted directly from genetically modified (GM) switchgrass at a low cost and without high technical requirements.

Olly Peoples, co-founder and director of science for Metabolix, says that the company has now converted about 6% of switchgrass leaf tissue into PHB, but this percentage is lower when using the rest of the plant. . Accordingly, the PHB can be used to produce plastics and industrial chemicals such as butanol and propylene which the company is researching with funding from the US Department of Energy.

In addition to the alternative to petroleum, the PHB from switchgrass s is neutralized, even to neutralize CO ₂ . 'Oil production needs energy and CO2 emissions, whereas PHB produces energy and inhibits CO ₂ . So PHB and its products are basically a sustainable source of biofuels, " Peoples said.