{"id":78799,"date":"2020-09-18T07:23:35","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T05:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=78799"},"modified":"2020-09-16T14:36:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T12:36:02","slug":"a-new-method-for-making-a-key-component-of-plastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/a-new-method-for-making-a-key-component-of-plastics\/","title":{"rendered":"A new method for making a key component of plastics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1920_anethyleneproductionplant\"
Ethylene production plants like this one may one day use bacteria rather than fossil fuels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown way that some bacteria produce the chemical ethylene<\/a> \u2013 a finding that could lead to new ways to produce plastics without using fossil fuels.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The study<\/a>, published today (Aug. 27, 2020) in the journal Science<\/em>, showed that the bacteria created ethylene gas as a byproduct of metabolizing sulfur, which they need to survive.<\/p>\n

\"Bildschirmfoto
Justin North<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the process that the bacteria use to do that could make it very valuable in manufacturing, said Justin North<\/a>, lead author of the study and a research scientist in microbiology at The Ohio State University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may have cracked a major technological barrier to producing a large amount of ethylene gas that could replace fossil fuel sources in making plastics,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of work to do to develop these strains of bacteria to produce industrially significant quantities of ethylene gas. But this opens the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers from Ohio State worked on the study with colleagues from Colorado State University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.<\/p>\n

Ethylene is widely used in the chemical industry to make nearly all plastics, North said. It is used more than any other organic compound in manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\"Bildschirmfoto
Robert Tabita<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Currently, oil or natural gas are used to create ethylene. Other researchers have discovered bacteria that can also create the chemical, but there had been a technological barrier to using it \u2013 the need for oxygen as part of the process, said Robert Tabita<\/a>, senior author of the study and professor of microbiology at Ohio State.<\/p>\n

\u201cOxygen plus ethylene is explosive, and that is a major hurdle for using it in manufacturing,\u201d said Tabita, who is an Ohio Eminent Scholar.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the bacterial system we discovered to produce ethylene works without oxygen and that gives us a significant technological advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discovery was made in Tabita\u2019s lab at Ohio State when researchers were studying Rhodospirillum rubrum<\/em><\/a> bacteria. They noticed that the bacteria were acquiring the sulfur they needed to grow from methylthio ethanol.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to understand how the bacteria were doing this, because there were no known chemical reactions for how this was occurring,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n

That was when he decided to see what gases the bacteria were producing \u2013 and discovered ethylene gas was among them.<\/p>\n

Working with colleagues from Colorado State and the two national labs, North, Tabita and other Ohio State colleagues were able to identify the previously unknown process that liberated the sulfur the bacteria needed, along with what North called the \u201chappy byproduct\u201d of ethylene.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t all: The researchers also discovered the bacteria were using dimethyl sulfide to create methane, a potent greenhouse gas.<\/p>\n

All the research was done in the lab, so it remains to be seen exactly how common this process is in the environment, North said.<\/p>\n

But the researchers have identified one situation where this newly discovered process of ethylene production may have real-life consequences.<\/p>\n

Ethylene is an important natural plant hormone that, in the right amounts, is key to the growth and health of plants. But it is also harmful to plant growth in high quantities, said study co-author Kelly Wrighton<\/a>, associate professor of soil and crop science at Colorado State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis newly discovered pathway may shed light on many previously unexplained environmental phenomena, including the large amounts of ethylene that accumulates to inhibitory levels in waterlogged soils, causing extensive crop damage,\u201d Wrighton said.<\/p>\n

Added North: \u201cNow that we know how it happens, we may be able to circumvent or treat these problems so that ethylene doesn\u2019t accumulate in soils when flooding occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tabita said this research is the result of a happy accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study, involving the collaborative research and expertise of two universities and two national laboratories, is a perfect example of how serendipitous findings often lead to important advances,\u201d Tabita said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, our studies involved a totally unrelated research problem that had seemingly no relationship to the findings reported here.\u201d<\/p>\n

While studying the role of one particular protein in bacteria sulfur metabolism, the researchers noted an entirely different group of proteins were unexpectedly involved as well. This led to the discovery of novel metabolic reactions and the unexpected production of large quantities of ethylene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a result we could not predict in a million years,\u201d Tabita said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecognizing the industrial and environmental significance of ethylene, we embarked on these cooperative studies, and subsequently discovered a completely novel complex enzyme system. Who would have believed it?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The research was supported by the Department of Energy\u2019s Office of Science, the National Cancer Institute and the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Other co-authors were, from Ohio State: Kathryn Byerly, Guanqi Zhao, Sarah Young, Srividya Murali and John Wildenthal. From Colorado State: Adrienne Narrowe. From Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Weili Xiong and Robert Hettich. From Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: William Cannon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discovered a previously unknown way that some bacteria produce the chemical ethylene \u2013 a finding that could lead to new ways to produce plastics without using fossil fuels. The study, published today (Aug. 27, 2020) in the journal Science, showed that the bacteria created ethylene gas as a byproduct of metabolizing sulfur, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[13383,15806,10408,11966,5817],"supplier":[3135,1111,1144,420,2437,3791,4116],"class_list":["post-78799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bacteria","tag-ethylene","tag-greenchemistry","tag-plastics","tag-research","supplier-colorado-state-university","supplier-national-cancer-institute","supplier-national-science-foundation-usa","supplier-ohio-state-university","supplier-oak-ridge-national-laboratory","supplier-pacific-northwest-national-laboratory","supplier-us-doe-office-of-science-sc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78799"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=78799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}