Scientists have discovered a new way to deal with plastic waste
On August 15th, according to foreign media reports, scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) discovered new ways to dispose of plastic waste. Scientist Greg Beckham of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory is an avid diving enthusiast. He has witnessed the problem of plastic pollution in the world ’s oceans for the past 15 years. At the same time Nick Mallos, director of the Marine Conservation-Free Marine Project, pointed out that approximately 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year. In order to solve the problem of plastic waste, Beckham and his team have been working hard to find ways to make waste polyester plastic (used in bottles, containers and polyester) more valuable, so that people will no longer throw away. When Beckham and his colleagues worked with researchers in London, a breakthrough was gratifying. They are studying the structure of an enzyme in a bacterium that was found eating plastic outside a bottle recycling plant in Japan. Beckham explained: "We are constantly trying to find out how this enzyme decomposes plastic through various methods, but I did not expect that this enzyme has been mutated to greatly improve its ability to decompose plastic. In nature, this kind of It takes centuries for enzymes to degrade polyester plastics. But now this mutated enzyme can complete this work in weeks or months, and we are working hard to make it work in a few days, which will be very exciting. " The second major breakthrough is the mixing of ground plastic bottles with biodegradable substances in plants. When researchers combine them in a very special way, they can create a completely new type of plastic material, just like a composite material. This composite material has been added to fiberglass to make surfboards, snowboards, automotive parts and wind turbine blades. Nick Basil, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, who participated in the research, said: "The best part of our work is that we found that when we use both polyester bottles and materials obtained from biomass At the time, it actually achieved better performance than typical petroleum formulations. Its performance is not only stronger than current oil-based materials, but also lighter. " The National Renewable Energy Laboratory plans to start and run a pilot program within a few years. It will break down one ton of PET plastic per day, and the product will be used to manufacture turbine blades at the nearby National Wind Energy Technology Center. China leading manufacturers and suppliers of Desktop Boiling Sterilizer,Desktop Boiling Water Sterilizer, and we are specialize in Boiling Water Sterilizer,Boiling Instruments For Sterilization, etc. Desktop Boiling Sterilizer,Desktop Boiling Water Sterilizer,Boiling Water Sterilizer,Boiling Instruments For Sterilization Zenith Lab (Jiangsu) Co.,Ltd , https://www.zenithlabo.com