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Scientists Develop Plastic-Producing Bacteria

Posted By Jason Sahler On September 22, 2008 @ 5:00 am In Green Materials,San Francisco | 5 Comments

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Scientists at Genomatica Inc. [5] recently announced that they have developed strains of bacteria that are able to produce plastic without the use of oil [6] or natural gas. The sustainable process utilizes little more than sugar and water to produce butanediol (BDO) [7], which can be manufactured into everything from plastics [8] and fibers to pharmaceuticals. Genomatica estimates that within a year the energy-efficient process will cost less than current hydrocarbon-based processes – a revolutionary development since close to 3 billion pounds of BDO manufactured each year.



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Currently BDO is made exclusively with oil and natural gas, and its production is very energy-intensive. Utilizing sugar [9] and E. Coli to create the chemical allows the production process to be conducted under normal pressure and temperatures, which drastically cuts it energy use: “By using advanced computational modeling and evolution‐based methods to rapidly engineer living organisms, Genomatica can produce valuable chemicals from renewable feedstocks at low cost.”

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The bacteria-grown plastic can be produced in large fermentation tanks in a manner similar the way that algae [10] is being used to produce biofuels, and the company plans on using sugars that are non-competitive with the food industry to steer clear of some of the conflicts that have been brought up with ethanol-based fuels [11].

+ Genomatica [5]

Via Scientific American [12]


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[4] Image: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/09/22/scientists-develop-plastic-producing-bacteria/

[5] Genomatica Inc.: http://www.genomatica.com/index.html

[6] oil: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/10/04/want-to-stop-global-warming-stop-coal/

[7] butanediol (BDO): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,4-Butanediol

[8] plastics: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/08/20/y-bottles-by-yves-behar/

[9] sugar: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/09/04/sony-bio-battery-runs-entirely-on-sugar/

[10] algae: http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/10/22/power-your-car-with-algae-algae-biocrude-by-livefuels/

[11] fuels: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/09/09/san-francisco-announces-10-million-gallon-biodiesel-plant/

[12] Scientific American: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=turning-bacteria-into-plastic-factories-replacing-fossil-fuels

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