Plastic is widely used in daily life, but its production harms the environment and adds to global pollution. Now, researchers from Kobe University in Japan have made a breakthrough in creating a more eco-friendly plastic ingredient using bacteria.
The material, called pyridinedicarboxylic acid (PDCA), is not a complete alternative to plastic but can replace harmful ingredients like terephthalic acid in PET plastics. PDCA is biodegradable and nitrogen-based, making it more environmentally friendly.
In earlier methods, making PDCA created toxic waste and had low yields. But the new technique developed by the Japanese team increases production by seven times and removes the toxic byproducts. The scientists achieved this by modifying Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria. They fed the bacteria glucose and added special enzymes to help produce PDCA through a cleaner, biological process.
"Our group approached the challenge from a new angle," says bioengineer Tanaka Tsutomu. "We aimed to harness cellular metabolism to assimilate nitrogen and build the compound from start to finish."
"The significance of our work lies in demonstrating that metabolic reactions can be used to incorporate nitrogen without producing unwanted byproducts, thereby enabling the clean and efficient synthesis of the target compound."
However, the process was not without challenges. A new harmful byproduct appeared during production. To fix this, the researchers added pyruvate, which helped solve the issue but may create new problems when scaling up production for industrial use.
Despite this, the study shows real progress toward making biodegradable plastics that are more sustainable. The team believes this new method can help reduce reliance on petroleum-based plastics and contribute to solving the plastic pollution crisis. This research was published in the journal Metabolic Engineering.
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