Nov 24 2009
Scientists from the South Korean University have successfully invented a new strategy of developing polymers used for making plastics through bioengineering, and thus doing away with the usual method of using chemicals from fossil fuels. A research on this invention, which is expected to promote the usage of eco-friendly plastics, is published in the Bioengineering and Biotechnology journal, to mark the journal’s golden anniversary. This journal is available from Wiley-Blackwell.
This research team headed by Professor Sang Yup Lee included members from the Korean chemical company LG Chem and the KAIST University. Together, they have discovered that the usage of a bio-based polymer called Polylactic Acid (PLA) will help in manufacturing eco-friendly plastics through renewable and natural resources. Professor Sang Yup Lee described the Polylactic Acid as less toxic, biodegradable and as a perfect replacement for petroleum.
Lee further remarked that the intention of using renewable biomass to produce polymers is due to the limited availability of fossil resources and the urgency to solve various environmental problems.
Polylactic Acid is now produced in an inexpensive way in comparison to its earlier fermentation and chemical process of polymerization that involved two steps, and was considered to be a costly and complicated procedure. With the use of a metabolically engineered strain of E.coli, a single process that produces both Polylactic Acid and its copolymers through direct fermentation has been developed by the research team.
This single process will indeed help in maintaining a balance between metabolic engineering and enzyme engineering thus producing both polyester and polymer based products through direct microbial fermentation. Professor Sang Yup Lee while referring to the increasing problems related to the environment and the global warming concept stated that many more engineered organisms producing a variety of unnatural polymers through the direct fermentation method will be produced by the new strategy invented by his research team.
Source: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/