PHA Bioplastics from Bacteria

Did you know that bacteria can produce plastics?
Under environmental stress conditions, bacteria produce a type of bioplastic named polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA).
Just like bears, bacteria accumulate fat for periods of scarcity. By chance, this fat has plastic properties. Different from conventional petrochemical plastics, PHA's bioplastics are renewable, biodegradable, and even biocompatible.
Find out more about Biotechnology:
www.tectonia.co...
Follow me on LinkedIn:
/ marianakanbe

[@WorldwideRealityVideos]

Good stuff

[@rogerpatry5167]

My understanding is that PHA plastic is made by microorganisms, and that microorganisms in the soil and water degrade it fully in the environment. My question is based on repurposing agricultural land to make plastic, instead of feeding people. Has any work been done to calculate how many kt of food must be used to replace PET , PE, and PP used in the world today? Are there enough orange peels, food waste, etc in the world to replace petrochemical plastics?

[@marianakanbe546]

Hey, Roger Patry. I found that 2.05 million tons of bioplastics were produced in 2017. According to European Bioplastics data this was correspondent to 0.016% of global agricultural area.
If we consider that ~380 million tons of plastics are produced anually, the replacement of petrochemical plastics would require about 3% of global agricultural area.
Besides this, I think there are various ways to ensure a sufficient supply of biomass for the production for food, feed, and material uses (including bioplastics) such as broadening the base of feedstock looking into using plant residues or other ligno-cellulosic feedstock; and increasing yields, improving the efficiency of industrial conversion of raw materials into feedstock.

[@veral.t.6114]

Research very important for the environment

[@carlosteixeira8695]

Mariana, My Niece: Is the best

[@joaomrtins]

Ela disse São Paulo?
Eu tava esperando um gringo. Mas no final das contas essa área tem muitos brasileiros.

[@brenogustavo292]

é

[@teemathong]

I want to know that what Bacteria you use for fermentation.

[@cryptofellow8928]

Awesome video. Congratulations!

[@sayemanwartuhin6573]

is there any mass production process that has the immidiate possibilities and potential to take over the typical plastic.

[@marianakanbe546]

I don't think there is any process of production of bioplastics that have reached the cost of petrochemical plastics.
There were decades and decades of incentives for the petrochemical industry. The incentives for producing biopolymers aren't comparable to what happened with petrochemicals (neither in time nor in capital volume).
I think we can say there are processes with the potential to take over the typical plastic, but not immediately. If we want to reach this scenario, much more research and, especially, more laws of incentive and funding for the biopolymers sector are still necessary.

[@sayemanwartuhin6573]

@@marianakanbe546 Now thats a necessary action to be taken, but vastly connected problems will still be there. People from many sectors shall be invited in the same room, becasue from the perspective I'm seeing this its important to lessen the impact, but not only by inventing just new ways of making polymers, it should go try tidy up the mess made in the root. Which is how the consumers using the product. Will be following you for more update on this.