Making Biofuel From Plastic Bags

Shred a few plastic bags, add warm water and some genetically modified bacteria, and -- voila! -- on-the-spot gasoline.

That's the dream of Brooklyn Polytechnic University chemist Richard Gross. He's tweaked e. coli to produce an enzyme that turns soy oil into a fatty acid that can be used to make plastics suitable for everyday commercial use. These are in turn broken down by another strain of e. coli that produces an enzyme used by parasites to chew through the waxy surface of leaves.

Conversion begins with shredding the plastic. An office paper shredder will do, Dr. Gross said. Then the shreds are immersed in water with a small amount of the enzyme. In three days to five days, the process is complete, and the biodiesel floats to the top.

To meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for road use in the United States, biofuel would have to go through additional chemical processing, but Darpa believes the resulting fuel can be poured directly into the fuel tank of a diesel generator to make electricity.

Gross's research is being funded by the ever-fun Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, but if it works the civilian potential would be immense.

A Plastic Wrapper Today Could Be Fuel Tomorrow [New York Times]

Image: Ibrahim Mohamed