The IPREM laboratory at the University of Paulo is carrying out a research project whose goal is to produce bioplastics in a short period of time using local resources.
They are made from corn crop residues and from microorganisms extracted from the sediments of a port on the Basque coast.
Plastics are the cause of major environmental damage, especially in the oceans. A number of research projects are under way to find sustainable and recyclable alternatives to these products. The IPREM laboratory at the University of Paul is leading an original project whose goal is to manufacture bioplastics in the short term using local resources. The main idea of the project, which starts in 2020, is to produce them from corn crop residues, which have a very large surface area in southwestern France. These biomasses are then made into biopolymers using bacteria extracted from marine sediments. The project, called BENEFICCE, is funded as part of a European program.
"Bioplastic polymers have been around since I started to be interested in plastic issues, but they are too expensive to produce." explains Maria Lorena Falco, a PhD in Precision Science and a biotechnologist who is one of the leaders of the project.
In order to achieve an economically acceptable solution, a shortcut may be a good option. In my research, I worked on the pyrolysis of rice biomass, which was supposed to help find alternatives to fossil fuels but ultimately proved to be too sticky to use. It was inspired by this work that the BENEFICCE project was born.
The scientists collected microbial samples in the sediments of a harbor on the Basque coast, an environment that is specific in that it is rich in hydrocarbons released by ships. As a result of the fermentation process of corn residues, these microorganisms are able to produce polymers with the same properties as those present in plastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene. The method also requires the provision of bio-oil as a carbon source, which is produced by the pyrolysis process of this biomass in steps carried out in parallel. We select a group of microorganisms and then isolate the bacteria that produce the polymers of interest, more precisely polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), and then cultivate them under the same conditions as in the laboratory, adds Maria Lorena Falco. The difficulty lies in the fact that we are dealing with organisms with a wide variety of behaviors.
The next step is to extract the polymers inside the bacteria. For this purpose, organic solvents are currently used, but the researchers are considering several ways to use non-polluting solvents in the future. The next stage involves purifying the extracted polymers. We have successfully purified this polymer that looks like a white powder." Maria Lorena Falco said. In order to make bioplastics, chemical additives are needed that will make them blendable with other bio-based polymers. For this purpose, we cooperate with the University of Warsaw in Poland, which is an expert in this field.
At this stage, all the hypotheses of this research work have been verified. Scientists are waiting for new funding to continue it in order to move to the pre-industrial stage. Ultimately, they aim to produce bioplastics, especially for food packaging, medical applications or the production of agricultural products. As part of the BENEFICCE project, certain microorganisms extracted from marine sediments can also produce fatty acids for the production of biodiesel and oleochemical elements for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. They can also produce enzymes for the depolymerization of lignin and the implementation of biorefinery processes.
