Texas A&M AgriLife develops system to create bioplastics
In Texas, a team of Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists has developed a system that uses carbon dioxide to produce bioplastics.
Susie Dai, associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, noted that today’s petroleum-based plastics do not degrade easily and create a massive issue in the ecosystems and, ultimately, oceans.
To address these issues, the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences researchers and their teams worked for almost two years to develop an integrated system that uses CO2 as a feedstock for bacteria to grow in a nutrient solution and produce bioplastics. The Texas A&M University System has filed a patent application for the integrated system.
“Carbon dioxide has been used in concert with bacteria to produce many chemicals, including bioplastics, but this design produces a highly efficient, smooth flow through our carbon dioxide-to-bioplastics pipeline,” Dai said.
Category: Research
