Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
25 Dec 2021, 9:34 pm
Jakki wrote:
Brilliant…!
My vision is single celled protein. Imagine a bioreactor where plastic goes in one end and edible microbes come out the other. Perhaps not for making human food, but fertilizer, animal feed, etc.
It really does sound like a great idea.. Can see it as being a revolution in our planets problem with so much. Plastic residue that is/ have been created . Is your vision for this protein, a enzyme? Type of thing?
Joined: 6 Jan 2011 Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 34,907 Location: Somewhere in Colorado
26 Dec 2021, 2:38 am
Axeman wrote:
Jakki wrote:
Brilliant…!
My vision is single celled protein. Imagine a bioreactor where plastic goes in one end and edible microbes come out the other. Perhaps not for making human food, but fertilizer, animal feed, etc.
But what if it could be made into human food...? It would be like the early version of the replicators they have on star treck.
Joined: 13 May 2019 Gender: Male Posts: 14,730 Location: .
26 Dec 2021, 2:39 am
Axeman wrote:
Biology is the best way to do it imo, specifically fast growing hardy organisms adapted to do it.
That cup and the material in the film is not plastic. They are polystyrene.
The best way to deal with plastic including polystyrene is to convert them back into oil which is cheap and easy to do. It is also the cruelist thing one could do to those insects as if they were animals the owners would be in prison for cruelty. Anything will try to eat something if it is starved for long enough.
If that were a cabbage leaf or something else more edible it would be gone in seconds.
Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
26 Dec 2021, 7:57 am
Mountain Goat wrote:
Axeman wrote:
Biology is the best way to do it imo, specifically fast growing hardy organisms adapted to do it.
That cup and the material in the film is not plastic. They are polystyrene.
The best way to deal with plastic including polystyrene is to convert them back into oil which is cheap and easy to do. It is also the cruelist thing one could do to those insects as if they were animals the owners would be in prison for cruelty. Anything will try to eat something if it is starved for long enough.
If that were a cabbage leaf or something else more edible it would be gone in seconds.
Polystyrene is plastic foam. Also it's actually bacteria in the worms gut that digest it, and digest it they do. What I want to do is culture the bacteria and take the worm out of the equation. Problem is symbiotic bacteria can be very difficult to grow in pure culture.
Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
26 Dec 2021, 8:01 am
Jakki wrote:
It really does sound like a great idea.. Can see it as being a revolution in our planets problem with so much. Plastic residue that is/ have been created . Is your vision for this protein, a enzyme? Type of thing?
A single celled protein is basically food made from microbes such as bacteria or yeast.
Joined: 13 May 2019 Gender: Male Posts: 14,730 Location: .
26 Dec 2021, 8:06 am
Have you seen the ways of turning plastic back into oil? Plastic products can be re-refined and brought back into a liquid and gas states which can be used as fuel for diesel, petrol engines or heating fuel as well as a gas (LPG etc).
It is not only recycling and cheap and relitively easy to do (Can be done in ones back yard if needed), but it also under the right conditions is better for the enviroment then obtaining more crude oil to do the same thing.
Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
26 Dec 2021, 8:34 am
Mountain Goat wrote:
Have you seen the ways of turning plastic back into oil? Plastic products can be re-refined and brought back into a liquid and gas states which can be used as fuel for diesel, petrol engines or heating fuel as well as a gas (LPG etc).
It is not only recycling and cheap and relitively easy to do (Can be done in ones back yard if needed), but it also under the right conditions is better for the enviroment then obtaining more crude oil to do the same thing.
This sounds much more costly and energy consuming then letting bacteria simply digest it.
Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
26 Dec 2021, 8:39 am
Sweetleaf wrote:
Axeman wrote:
Jakki wrote:
Brilliant…!
My vision is single celled protein. Imagine a bioreactor where plastic goes in one end and edible microbes come out the other. Perhaps not for making human food, but fertilizer, animal feed, etc.
But what if it could be made into human food...? It would be like the early version of the replicators they have on star treck.
No. The replicators on Star Trek are basically a transporter that take a stock molecule stored on ship, use a transporter beam to break it down, and then reassemble it into something different.
Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
26 Dec 2021, 8:42 am
Jakki wrote:
It really does sound like a great idea.. Can see it as being a revolution in our planets problem with so much. Plastic residue that is/ have been created . Is your vision for this protein, a enzyme? Type of thing?
Isolation of the plastic degrading enzymes themselves could be more problematic than simply letting a living organism do the work. Enzymes are designed to work in cells and the larger and more complex ones don't do well outside them.
Joined: 13 May 2019 Gender: Male Posts: 14,730 Location: .
26 Dec 2021, 9:22 am
Axeman wrote:
Mountain Goat wrote:
Have you seen the ways of turning plastic back into oil? Plastic products can be re-refined and brought back into a liquid and gas states which can be used as fuel for diesel, petrol engines or heating fuel as well as a gas (LPG etc).
It is not only recycling and cheap and relitively easy to do (Can be done in ones back yard if needed), but it also under the right conditions is better for the enviroment then obtaining more crude oil to do the same thing.
This sounds much more costly and energy consuming then letting bacteria simply digest it.
Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
26 Dec 2021, 9:27 am
Mountain Goat wrote:
Axeman wrote:
Mountain Goat wrote:
Have you seen the ways of turning plastic back into oil? Plastic products can be re-refined and brought back into a liquid and gas states which can be used as fuel for diesel, petrol engines or heating fuel as well as a gas (LPG etc).
It is not only recycling and cheap and relitively easy to do (Can be done in ones back yard if needed), but it also under the right conditions is better for the enviroment then obtaining more crude oil to do the same thing.
This sounds much more costly and energy consuming then letting bacteria simply digest it.
Why waste what can be re-used at little cost?
Letting bacteria degrade the plastic would in theory produce no environmentally harmful end product and have no carbon footprint. Recycling it is a better option than just dumping it or landfilling it but you've still got the plastic and a significant carbon footprint.
Joined: 5 Aug 2021 Age: 47 Gender: Male Posts: 1,435 Location: USA
26 Dec 2021, 9:44 am
Mountain Goat wrote:
True but that is assuming that we have no future use for oil.
It is a bit like having an excess in discarded glass. One can grind it back into sand, or one can recycle it as glass.
While we have a continual need for glass, we may as well recycle it rather than grind it back into sand.
Glass is different because the material itself is not toxic or an environmental hazard. It's also impossible to degrade by biology and almost impossible to degrade chemically.