Plastic waste is plaguing our planet, filling landfills and oceans with trash. However, research at Texas A&M University is working with bacteria that feed on wastewater sludge to harness a byproduct of this process — materials that can be used to develop biodegradable bioplastics. On this episode of Engineer This!, our hosts talk with Dr. Bella Chu, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and doctoral student Fahad Asiri, to learn how they are finding ways to innovate the plastics industry, ranging from aquaculture to medical fields to the plastic bottles we use every day.
Plastic waste is plaguing our planet, filling landfills and oceans with trash. However, research at Texas A&M University is working with bacteria that feed on wastewater sludge to harness a byproduct of this process — materials that can be used to develop biodegradable bioplastics. On this episode of Engineer This!, our hosts talk with Dr. Bella Chu, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and doctoral student Fahad Asiri, to learn how they are finding ways to innovate the plastics industry, ranging from aquaculture to medical fields to the plastic bottles we use every day.
Plastic waste is plaguing our planet, filling landfills and oceans with trash. However, research at Texas A&M University is working with bacteria that feed on wastewater sludge to harness a byproduct of this process materials that can be used to develop biodegradable bioplastics. Dr. Bella Chu, professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and doctoral student Fahad Asiri, are finding ways to innovate the plastics industry, ranging from aquaculture to medical fields to the plastic bottles we use every day. This is SoundBytes. Welcome to Engineer This!
Dr. Bella Chu:As an environmental engineer, with the way we learn in the wastewater treatment process, we would say,"Okay, we'll throw away the sludge." But these days, we kind of change our mindset. I try to see what we can do. Instead of spending all the money to the wastewater treatment process, we want to recover something. They have a lot of nitrogen, carbon source, so it's a good source for us recover. So that's why we think about we would like to use a lot of organic waste including activated sludge to produce bio energy and byproduct.
Steve Kuhlmann:I think for a lot of people, myself included, petroleum based plastics are considered as the default. Can we define what bioplastics are?
Dr. Bella Chu:Yeah, of course. Bioplastic is the, produced by living organisms. And some, actually some plants can produce a plastic as well. But majority is we derived from this bacteria or different algae, fungi, so they, some of them can produce bioplastic. They try to obtain all the nutritions outside the environment, and then they store it as a granule inside their cells.
Fahad Asiri:Those bioplastics are a replacement for conventional fossil fuel plastics produced from the petroleum industry. By using bacteria in the lab, we can grow them in bioreactors to produce bioplastics. And those bioplastics, they have chemical and physical characteristics similar to the conventional plastics, but they are biodegradable, so that we can now tackle the issue of having non-degradable plastics, which takes decades for them to degrade. Also, the advantage of using microbes that we can treat the organics simultaneously. So those microbes, they grow on waste. So by using the anaerobic sludge, or municipal wastewater or even aquaculture wastewater, we can grow those microbes and produce the PHB bioplastic.
Hannah Conrad:How did the idea of your research come about?
Dr. Bella Chu:When I was a student, a Ph.D. student, it was the first. I'm dealing with the one specific microorganism that is able to accumulate this internal, the granule with bioplastic. And at that time, they, actually industry and a lot of scientists, scientific community knew that bacteria were able to do that. So that was a first excitement when I was, when I was doing the research. They are using other mechanisms to kind of take into extra nutrients to kind of prepare them for the rainy day. So then later on, when we're doing our research, we realize that there's not only one type of microorganisms. There are tons of microorganisms able to do it, but you had a find an ideal microorganism able to do it, like I say. For example, they can accumulate large quantity; they will save a percentage of the biomass weight, so, they accumulate 80%, 70% of their dry mass weight. Then that will be a good ideal candidate to produce a bioplastic for us.
Steve Kuhlmann:As this is an emerging field, what are some of the challenges producing these bioplastics?
Fahad Asiri:We are expecting several challenges when we shift from a lab scale to a full scale, specifically when other environmental and operational factors come to play such as the types of organic waste we use to grow those bacteria to produce bioplastic. Also, the mass transfer in the bioreactor. So transferring from smallscale to lab scale, it would be hard for oxygen, for example, to transfer in the system or other organics, like nutrients nitrogen or phosphorus to reach the microbes. So this eventually would have like an impact on the long-term performance.
Dr. Bella Chu:Yeah, I think I would like to add more about that. So if we look at the broader pictures, and you, Steve you mentioned earlier, that we're using petroleum-based plastic, and the reason why is they are cheap, and they produce in mass production. Well to produce a bioplastic there's cost of higher, much higher, so then who is willing to pay for it? So then that's come to question is a price issue. The other thing is, as we, in this study, is that we kind of focus on the harvesting. How do you grow the bacteria? And you want to just have a more diluted solution. You want to find a way to harvest effectively, and those also cost energy. So we are tackling to this specific question, try to reduce the costs by using organic waste and also find a way to harvest effectively.
Hannah Conrad:What do you think is a realistic timeframe for making the production cost of bioplastic similar to traditional plastics?
Dr. Bella Chu:The realistic timeline, I think there's a combination of several factors. First of all, if we can find a way to drive the price, production costs lower, consumers are willing to, to buy it. The other important factor is we kind of realization of that kind of are you going to using the non-biodegradable plastic that will pollute our environment. And right now we see the ocean have tons of plastic, and then researchers start to share that. So we call this a microplastic and nanoplastic, it ended up not only in the ocean. It's also in a wastewater, in our food and in the human system. The long term, we pay this price, is that worth it? And I think as more scientific evidence show there's some adverse effect on human being, on the environment, and that is the time we really rethink. We need to, even at the price a little bit higher, we should pay for that. The other thing is, I think that's probably the driver from different industry. For example, right now, we're only looking at that more daily use, the kind of maybe the bottle, plastic bottle or something. But a very important driving force is probably coming from the clinical.
Fahad Asiri:There are some hospitals; they use those bioplastic for surgery to replace bones, connections and stitches. In the long term, I think those bioplastic has a high potential to replace conventional plastic, and we, maybe we can see them in consumer products like plastic bags and bottles. But I think this has to be more research to develop those bioplastics.
Hannah Conrad:Well, talking about the future, where is this research headed next?
Dr. Bella Chu:We not only apply it to the daily plastic product, but in fact we are using to use the food for the fish. So we kind of fish feed. And so this is a very unique application because aquaculture as a very, is a growing industry. Probably 20% or more than 20% our protein derived from the seafood. And we have a limited ocean, the our resources and that's why agricultural industry growing very rapidly. But they do face several major challenges. They're using a lot of antibiotics to do in their farming. They'll call the fish farming or any aquaculturla farming, they using the, when they feed, they add antibiotics to cure disease and also, also ensure their productivity. The second one is the the fish feed is kind of expensive. And third one, during this process, you produce a lot of water, wastewater and waste, and that needs to be managed. So that's why, by using the, we found with bioplastics, they have a similar antimicrobial characteristic potential to replace as antibiotics. In a sense, you don't need to use the antibiotics. We can replace as a fish feed, and in the meantime, we make the bioplastic from the wastewater and waste from the agricultural industry.
Jenn Reiley:Howdy! This is your producer Jenn Reiley here with a quick note. I thought it would be interesting to get an idea on just how impactful plastic pollution is. According to a 2019 National Geographic article, plastic production has increased from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons in 2015. By 2050, that number is expected to double. Every eight years, about 8 million tons of plastic waste escaped into the oceans from coastal nations. And as for plastic breakdown, scientists estimate that plastic can last between 450 years to possibly forever, meaning it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Looking into more efficient, biodegradable options could change the landscape of plastic products. But I'm not the reason you're listening to this episode. Let's get back into the interview.
Steve Kuhlmann:For both of you, whenever you're explaining this research to someone new, what is it that excites you most about its potential?
Fahad Asiri:This developed bioplastic can have like a direct, and direct impact on the environment and the industry. So agro-industrial wastes have been increasing in the past decades, a lot of which are being discharged in water. By implementing and commercializing this technology, we can have more sustainable and economical industry. On the other hand, an average person would benefit directly by using degradable plastic in consumer products or other applications.
Dr. Bella Chu:Yeah, I think for me, I would be very excited, because I'm an environmental engineer, where you see there's a lot of trash with a plastic, you see it. And this become a global problems. And look at our daily things that you buy right now. Look at my computer, look at my mouse, they all make of plastic. Even the chair I'm sitting in is made of plastic. It's something like water and electricity, we cannot live with that. But continue to this way of living, we got to find a way to resolve this problem. But this is one small piece we can offer to resolve this waste plastic issue. I think it's very important to me.
Hannah Conrad:As a student, what's it like to work on such an impactful project?
Fahad Asiri:Being a student, it's really a great opportunity for me to work in this kind of project because I can see it has a big potential in the future. Working in lab and doing research open opportunity to find better jobs in the future and also develop my own research and my own lab related to bioplastic production using bacteria.
Steve Kuhlmann:And, you know, the flip side of that, Dr. Chu? What is it like for you, you know, having been a student, you spoke about it earlier. What is it like for you getting to mentor students in your lab as they work on projects like this?
Dr. Bella Chu:First of all, that when I mentor a student. Whenever they are working on a project, they got to be passionate about their research topic. Without any passion, it's very difficult. And then they will be come down to looking at help them to understand what is the current knowledge and identify which is a missing pieces and something we are able to accomplish with a short period of time. And also for the student, youu think the Ph.D. students stay in the lab for a long time. But it's actually a very short period of time, so we have to select specific question that are able to address so a student can graduate in time. And also they can make a contribution in that specific timeframe. So I think Fahad for example, Fahad did a great job. We kind of start from very beginning, identify bacteria, and moved forward to this application as a fish feed that can help sustain the agricultural industry. So I think this is in a way one specific unique application.
Hannah Conrad:Thank you again so much for taking the time to talk to us. Do you have any final thoughts?
Dr. Bella Chu:I think if more people are aware that bioplastic is important and potentially can replace synthetics or plastic. I think the more educational information spread out; I think that's very important. And this is kind of not a one man's job. It's entire, maybe we talk about village, actually it's the global population has to come together and realize we had to solve this plastic problems.
Hannah Conrad:We hope you enjoyed this episode of Engineering SoundBytes. Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with what's happening within Texas A&M Engineering. Until next time, stay safe and Gig 'em.
Steve Kuhlmann:Thanks for listening to the Texas A&M Engineering SoundBytes podcast. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Texas A&M University System. SoundBytes is a part of the Texas A&M Podcast Network. To find more official Texas A&M podcasts, go to podcast.tamu.edu. Thanks and Gig'em.