Bioplastic or biodegradable plastic, as the name suggests, are special kind of plastic which are environment friendly. Unlike conventional plastic which needs hundreds of years to be fully degraded, bioplastic can be degraded in a relatively short time.
Polyhydroxybutyrate acid (PHB) is a material produced by microorganisms such as Ralstonia eutropha or Bacillus megaterium in response to stress from environment condition. This material has many superior characteristics compared to other bioplastic materials.
PHB bioplastic is insoluble in water and resistant to hydrolytic degradation while some of other materials do. It also has good permeability for oxygen molecules. The material is UV resistant. This means it cannot be degraded through exposure to UV rays. Some bioplastic materials can be degraded when exposed to UV rays.
Moreover, PHB bioplastic is biocompatible. This means the material can be used for medical applications, such as threads for internal suture. The non-toxic characteristic makes the thread does not have to be removed after recovery. Since the material is biodegradable, the thread will degrade by itself after some time.
PHB bioplastic has high melting point, approximately 175 C. This is a lot higher compared to PLA, which cannot withstand high heat. This characteristic makes the material compatible as containers with high temperature usage.
The material's other characteristic is its tensile strength, which is 40 Mpa, close to that of polypropylene conventional plastic. Since PHB is soluble in chloroform, it is possible to harvest the material from bacterial cells using chloroform.
Despite having many good characteristics, commercial production of PHB bioplastic is still in low level. The production cost is still too high compared to other kinds of bioplastic material. However, since the material is obtained from bacteria, there are some means to decrease the production cost. Some researches have been done to enhance the efficiency of PHB production and the bacteria's ability to grow in low cost medium.
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Bioplastic is a breakthrough for saving our environment.
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