Metabolix To Genetically Engineer Switchgrass To Create A Biodegradable Polymer

Metabolix To Genetically Engineer Switchgrass To Create A Biodegradable Polymer

At present, Most of the plastics which are sold worldwide come from petroleum and they are not suitable for our healthy life as it isn’t biodegradable. Even in many countries Plastic Shopping bags are banned for it's harmful effect to the environment. But researchers at Metabolix in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are genetically engineering switchgrass to produce a biodegradable polymer that can be extracted directly from the plant.

The research is focused on a polymer called polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), which is part of the polyhydroxyalkanoate polymer (PHA) family of biopolymers that Metabolix already supplies to plastics manufacturers. The new plant-based process is potentially cheaper and requires less equipment, Metabolix says.

"Our challenge is to increase the flow of carbon to PHB which we are doing from two different approaches. In the first we are adding genes to accomplish the process of metabolic engineering such that more of the fixed carbon flows to PHB and in the second we are working to enhance the photosynthetic system in the plant such that the plant fixes more carbon which we then target to PHB," Metabolix co-founder and chief scientific officer Olly Peoples told.

Metabolix co-founder and chief scientific officer Olly Peoples

According to Peoples, besides offering another option to fossil fuel plastic, PHB from switchgrass is potentially carbon neutral and even negative. "Crop PHB will be based on CO2 fixed from the air and the co-product from the switchgrass program is basically a source of solid biofuel to replace coal so the carbon footprint is going to be negative. Petroleum requires energy and releases CO2 and PHB switchgrass will generate renewable energy and fix CO2," he said.

Metabolix calculates that the grass must produce 10 percent of its weight as PHB to be economically competitive with other sources of biodegradable plastics. The company has already nearly doubled the PHB content in switchgrass, from 1.2 percent in 2008 to 2.3 percent last year, including 7 percent in the leaves. The process would still produce some carbon emissions: growing and harvesting plants requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers and fossil-fuel-powered machines. But Peoples predicts it would be cleaner overall than producing plastic from fossil fuels, though a full analysis has yet to be done. For now, he’s eager to finally realize his plants-to-plastics vision. “This is a testament to sheer bloody single-mindedness,” he says.

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Write by: RC - Tuesday, August 6, 2013