Systematizing Microbial Bioplastic Production for Developing Sustainable Bioeconomy

Metabolic Nexus Modeling, Economic and Environmental Technologies Assessment

authored by

Rimjhim Sangtani, Regina Nogueira, Asheesh Kumar Yadav, Bala Kiran

Abstract

The excessive usage of non-renewable resources to produce plastic commodities has incongruously influenced the environment’s health. Especially in the times of COVID-19, the need for plastic-based health products has increased predominantly. Given the rise in global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, the lifecycle of plastic has been established to contribute to it significantly. Bioplastics such as polyhydroxy alkanoates, polylactic acid, etc. derived from renewable energy origin have been a magnificent alternative to conventional plastics and reconnoitered exclusively for combating the environmental footprint of petrochemical plastic. However, the economically reasonable and environmentally friendly procedure of microbial bioplastic production has been a hard nut to crack due to less scouted and inefficient process optimization and downstream processing methodologies. Thereby, meticulous employment of computational tools such as genome-scale metabolic modeling and flux balance analysis has been practiced in recent times to understand the effect of genomic and environmental perturbations on the phenotype of the microorganism. In-silico results not only aid us in determining the biorefinery abilities of the model microorganism but also curb our reliance on equipment, raw materials, and capital investment for optimizing the best conditions. Additionally, to accomplish sustainable large-scale production of microbial bioplastic in a circular bioeconomy, extraction, and refinement of bioplastic needs to be investigated extensively by practicing techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment. This review put forth state-of-the-art know-how on the proficiency of these computational techniques in laying the foundation of an efficient bioplastic manufacturing blueprint, chiefly focusing on microbial polyhydroxy alkanoates (PHA) production and its efficacy in outplacing fossil based plastic products.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management

External Organisation(s)

Indian Institute of Technology Indore (IITI)
Central Leather Research Institute
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR)

Type

Book/Film/Article review in journal

Journal

Journal of Polymers and the Environment

Volume

31

Pages

2741-2760

No. of pages

20

ISSN

1566-2543

Publication date

07.2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Engineering, Polymers and Plastics, Materials Chemistry

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-023-02787-0 (Access: Closed)