Professor Matthew Kanan and graduate student Christina Li have found a way to produce liquid ethanol from carbon monoxide gas. If they can make it work at scale, converting biomass from glucose found in waste precursors such as scrap timber and corn cobs, they may have found a way to provide an eco-friendly alternative to plastic.
8 Dec 2019
Finding the holy grail of turning plant waste into plastic
From Sunday Morning, 10:40 am on 8 December 2019
Tags:
- climate
- environment
- science
- Green Chemistry NZ
- Green house gas emission
- Justin Hodgkins
- PLA
- arable land
- biomass stream
- biosynthesised chemicals
- carbon to carbon bonds
- chemistry
- compostable plastic
- corn cobs
- crops
- cutlery packaging
- electro ketelysis
- feedstock
- fossil fuel resources
- glucose
- just transition
- lactic acid
- petrochemical industry
- plastic precursor
- plolylactic acid
- polymers
- starch
- waste biomass
- wood scraps
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