Making biodegradable plastics with microorganisms

î—¥ î—¥Maybe in the near future, whether it's a carry bag or a plastic bag filled with fruits and vegetables, you can safely throw it into the trash, not to deliberately classify it, or worry about what kind of pollution they cause to the environment. The pockets and plastic bags are made of a new generation of biodegradable plastic recently developed by scientists.

Biodegradable plastics use microorganisms as energy stores to store plants, animal fats or glycogen. This biodegradable plastic produced using microorganisms is actually a polyester compound. Microbiologists from the University of Muenster, Germany, said that at present only a few microorganisms in the natural world cannot produce polyester, and most microbes can be used by humans. Microorganisms capable of producing polyester compounds are found everywhere. They live in the soil and adsorb on the roots of spherical plants, sewage treatment ponds and the sea. They are like a "micro plastic processing plant."

The premise for microbes to produce polyester compounds is to provide them with enough organic substances. They first eat organic substances and convert them into microspheres, which are then stored in the body. Researchers remove microspheres from these microbes and dissolve them with solvents or enzymatically to obtain "bioplastics." The basic material of this bioplastic is natural fatty acids.

In general, polymers produced using bioreactors are too expensive to be used in the production of everyday packaging materials such as yogurt boxes and cheese bags. Germany has used conventional methods to develop biodegradable cosmetics bottles, but users have not been found because of the high cost. Nowadays, letting microorganisms produce cheap biodegradable plastics has been technically successful. The most urgent problem to be solved is the production problem.

The method of obtaining natural fatty acids using such microorganisms can be used not only to produce plastic bags, but also to produce well-compatibility biological agents, especially fatty acid polymers. Because this natural fatty acid can be slowly released in the human body, the remaining part is only fatty acid and will not produce side effects. In terms of its physical characteristics, it is completely comparable to synthetic materials. Scientists have tested the material and used it to make heart valve stents. They believe that in the future they can also be used to make bone nails and safe drugs. However, the clinical application of this biopolyester has not yet been found.

The use of microorganisms is extensive. Scientists believe that these tiny organisms can be used to produce a variety of polymeric molecules that may provide basic materials that are not found in the natural biological environment. In short, the use of microbes to produce biodegradable plastics has found a bright road for mankind to solve the problem of global white pollution.