Early in 2013, a research group led by Biome Bioplastics was awarded a grant by the UK's innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to investigate pulp and paper by-product, lignin, as a new source of organic chemicals for bioplastics manufacture. If successful, it could significantly reduce costs and increase performance of the sustainable materials.
Industrial biotechnology, the use of biological materials to make industrial products, is recognised by the UK government as a promising means of developing less carbon intensive products and processes, with an estimated value to the UK of between £4bn and £12bn (AU$7.23bn and AU$21.71bn) by 2025.
Lignin is a complex hydrocarbon that helps to provide structural support in plants and trees. It is a waste product of the pulp and paper industry, so lignin is a potentially abundant and low-cost feedstock for the high performance chemicals that could provide the foundation for the next generation of bioplastics.
The project has successfully demonstrated that bacteria can be effective in the selective degradation of lignin, and that the breakdown pathway can be controlled and improved using synthetic biology. Several organic chemicals have been produced that have potential use in bioplastics manufacture.
Some of the target chemicals have also been shown to have the potential to be produced at industrial scale. This suggests that there is commercial feasibility for using lignin-derived chemicals as an alternative for their petrochemical counterparts.
The research was undertaken in conjunction with the University of Warwick's Centre for Biotechnology and Biorefining led by Professor Tim Bugg, whose team has been working to develop methods to control the breakdown of lignin using bacteria and extract these chemicals in significant quantities.
"Scientists have been trying to extract chemicals from lignin for more than 30 years. Previously, chemical methods have been used but these produce a very complex mixture of hundreds of different products in very small amounts. By using bacteria found in soil we can manipulate the lignin degradation pathway to control the chemicals produced. This is ground-breaking work. We've made great progress over the last year and the results are very exciting," Bugg explained.
The next phase of the project will examine how the yields of these organic chemicals can be increased using different bacteria and explore options for further scale-up of this technology.
The first commercial target is to use the lignin-derived chemicals to replace the oil-derived equivalents currently used to give strength and flexibility in some of Biome Bioplastics' products, further reducing their cost and increasing their sustainability.
Paul Mines, chief executive officer of Biome Bioplastics, commented, "We are extremely pleased with the initial results of the feasibility study, which show strong promise for integration into our product lines. Looking ahead, we anticipate that the availability of a high performance polymer, manufactured economically from renewable sources, would considerably increase the bioplastic market."
