Would you believe me if I tell you bacteria could save earth's health? Let's see
Bacteria are wonderful microorganisms that inhabit various environments such as the ocean, land and even our bodies. They are the most abundant organisms on earth and some withstand extreme conditions adapting to the medium in which they find themselves. I bet you know some of them cause disease and are infectious, but did you know that some species can produce plastic? That's right, I'm pleased to introduce you the polyhydroxyalkanoates.
Wait... poly what?
Polymers are macromolecules formed by a repetitive chain of smaller compounds (monomers). These are the raw material of plastic products we use everyday and most of the ones used in the industry are petroleum derivatives. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) are polymers in development that have an special characteristic; they grow inside some bacteria. The most used one in the industry due to its high production rate of the polymer is Ralstonia eutropha.
This bacteria feed on organic material and synthesizes PHA as reserve of energy, in case the condition of the environment change and need to be fed. Thus, this mechanism of adaptation to non-nutritive media enables the polymer extraction from the bacteria, dried up and used as a raw material. (The white spots in the image below are the PHA accumulated)
Electron microscopic image of Ralstonia eutropha containing PHA (image credit)
Why polymers synthesized by bacteria?
- They are Biodegradable and biocompatible.
- They can be applied in biomedicine, food, packaging and textiles
- Unlike other biodegradable polymers, such as starch based, PHA avoid the use of food for plastic production since bacteria can eat organic waste to produce the polymer.
- They have similar structures and properties than the ones massively used today (petroleum based).
Even so, there's a lot of work to do
Still, PHA are not massively used in the industrial procedures nowadays due to its costs. Petroleum based polymers are too much cheaper than the PHAs, that's why to develop them industrially is necessary to achieve more economic conditions of growing for bacteria, to implement not expensive "food" for them and to design better industrial procedures, among others.
In the meantime...
(image credit)
I know it sounds like hippie environmentalist speech, but just try do not use plastics that don't be necessary. The importance with this isn't exactly the environmental impact, but the enculturation of the proper use of available resources.
Why do I write this? Plastics traumatize me
I am traumatized by the daily use of plastics. One of the reasons why I chose my career (I study Chemical Engineering, read the story here) was my concern about the future of the environment. There is so much to do in the world! so I decided I want to participate in new proposals aimed to fix environmental problems that are becoming in today challenges for all people working on them.
This is me ALWAYS jajaja (image credit)
Bibliographical sources:
Bioplastics magazine
Article
College Magazine
P.D. A bacteria joke you may like :)
IN A SUPPORT GROUP FOR MICROBES AND BACTERIA
"...my whole family died because of alcohol."