Bioplastic

Plastics are lighter and cheaper than other materials. They are the first choice in many industrial and commercial applications. Bioplastics are form of plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, which are produced from different sources such as plants, algae, starch and microorganisms. Lemoigne first described a bioplastic PHB (Poly-3-HydroxyButyrate) in Bacillus megaterium.

                                    Important bioplastic types are starch base plastics, polylactic acid(PLA), Poly-3-HydroxyButyrate(PHB), polyamide 11, bio-derived polyethylene and genetically modified bioplastics.

                                    The phaCBA cluster encodes three proteins such as β-ketothiolase, NADPH-oxidoreductase and PHB polymerase. The regulation of PHB pathway seems to be  complex. In recombinant bacteria, an excess polymerase leads to the formation of a large number of PHB.

                                    There are three important limitation in the bulk production of bioplastics which are special growth condition, the difficulty involved in synthesising them from expensive precursors and high cost of their recovery.

                                    Bioplastics do not only have ecological advantages, they also help to conserve fossil raw materials and reduce our dependency on mineral oil. One trend in the bioplastic industry has been to improve bioplastic performance characteristics by utilizing nanotechnology.