According to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist, bioplastics, which are biodegradable plastics that are made from biological substances, can be made in a more economically and environmentally friendly manner from corn stubble, mesquite, and grasses.A green tractor pulls a cart through a field full of bioenergy sorghum. The cart is higher than the tractor.Near College Station, a bioenergy sorghum crop was harvested. (Texas A&M AgriLife Photo)Joshua Yuan, Ph.D. is a Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Plant Pathology professor and chair of Synthetic Biology and Renewable Products. This new approach uses a plug-in preconditioning process. It's a simple adjustment that can be used by biofuel refineries. These plug-in technologies enable optimization of sustainable and cost-effective lignin, which is the main component of bioplastics used for food packaging and other everyday products.The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office funded the $2.4 million project. Nature Communications published the research recently.Researchers and Yuan are currently submitting next-phase requests to additional funding.A flexible processHead shot of Joshua Yuan, a man wearing glasses. Joshua Yuan (Texas A&M AgriLife photograph)Yuan stated that biofuel refineries face a significant challenge in extracting and using lignin efficiently."Our process uses five pretreatment technologies, and modifies them to make biofuel and plastics at a lower price."Yuan's research expands on earlier work that investigated enhanced extraction methods for the lignin.Yuan stated that the new method, called "plug in preconditioning processes lignin", or PIPOL, is easily added to existing biorefineries. It's also not prohibitive. PIPOL is a method that integrates dissolving, conditioning, and fermenting of lignin. It can be used to transform it into energy, and it can easily be adapted to biorefinery designs.Bioeconomy is a federal priorityYuan stated that the federal priority is the bioeconomy and the biomanufacturing sector. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy focuses on bioeconomy infrastructure, innovation and technology to boost U.S. growth.A picture of the sorghum head after the seeds were removed, as well as a stock container and small glass container containing seed.An environmentally-friendly way to make bioplastics is to use a high-yielding perennial forage sorghum hybrid as a feedstock. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Kay Ledbetter).The bioeconomy is responsible for approximately 285,000 jobs and generates $48 Billion in annual revenue.Innovation is key to growth and wider use of biodegradable materials. He said that commercialization of the Lignocellulosic Biorefinery is hampered by a lack of value-added products from biomass and lignin utilization for moldable products, as well as a low overall output with ethanol. "This discovery will make it possible to overcome some of these obstacles.Yuan also praised the research's environmental friendly aspects.He said, "We produce over 300 million tonnes of plastics every year." It is crucial to replace them with biodegradable materials. This research provides a pathway to make bioplastics out of common agricultural waste such as that from the production of corn, other grasses, and wood."We believe this research is very relevant to industry and could help the biorefinery/polymer industries [attain] greater efficiency and economic opportunity."Agriculture byproducts: What role?AgriLife Research and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences share a common commitment to finding solutions through science to environmental problems. Their research has shown that mesquite and high tonnenage sorghum are viable feedstocks for biofuel production.Yuan stated that agricultural byproducts like corn stubble or other grasses can be used as alternative feedstock for biofuel plants. These can create new revenue streams for farmers, as well as transportation that transports harvested feedstock to refinery operations.Yuan stated that "we have shown that bioplastics made from lignocellulosic biomass refineries can be more economically profitable, which opens up new avenues for the use of agricultural waste to make biodegradable plastics." "The discovery will help to mitigate global climate change by replacing nondegradable and fossil fuel plastics with renewable and biodegradable ones."###
