The technology will also help solve the problem of substandard fish oil
Krasnoyarsk scientists have “taught” bacteria to synthesize plastic from fish waste. In addition to obtaining a new source of raw materials for the manufacture of useful products, experts also solved the environmental problem with the disposal of “fish” plastic — it turned out to be biodegradable.
The production of synthetic plastics is expected to reach one billion tons per year by 2050. Their accumulation and problems with disposal represent a global environmental problem.
As reported at the Krasnoyarsk Scientific Center of the SB RAS, local scientists “taught” bacteria Cupriavidus necator synthesize biodegradable plastic – polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA polymers) from fish waste. As a carbon substrate, they managed to “feed” bacteria substandard fish oil of Baltic sprat, fresh Atlantic mackerel from canning and the remains of sprat sprat production after smoking.
Biodegradable thermoplastic polymers became the processed product. They are almost no different from ordinary plastic, but at the same time they can quickly decompose in nature. By the way, the waste from the fish processing industry itself exceeds 20 million tons per year worldwide, and its disposal is a problem.
It turns out that thanks to the introduction of plastic made from fish oil, in the future humanity will be able to solve and the problem of recycling the fat itself, and the problem of switching to biodegradable polymers, replacing traditional ones with them – petroleum origin.