Difference between revisions of "Team:TU Darmstadt/Applied Design"

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Polymers are everywhere. Refined from oil and gas, they make up products we use every day, such as plastic, digital devices and clothes. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), petrochemicals will be the largest driver of oil demand in the future.
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===The problem===
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But with all the extracting of oil comes high environmentally costs. At land, the gas extraction via fracking can cause groundwater pollution and harm to local ecosystems. In the air, fossil fuel combustion emissions release carbon, nitrogen and sulfur that create smog, acid rain and warm up the earth as greenhouse gases.
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This is why there is great need for a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to petrochemicals. In particular, we challenge the plastic production. Through synthesis of monomers in microorganisms, we hope to reduce the reliability on petrochemicals, so we can meet climate, air quality and water pollution goals, in the future.
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Think of petrochemicals as specific chemical compounds, which can be manufactured from oil, natural gas, coal or other sources. However, the majority of petrochemicals are derived from oil or natural gas. [https://www.afpm.org/petrochemicals/]
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These chemicals are mainly used for the production of plastic, digital devices, clothes and tires. [ https://outreach.afpm.org/Petrochemicals/why-petrochemicals-matter-to-you-2.html] According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) petrochemicals will be the largest driver of oil demand in the future. [https://www.iea.org/petrochemicals/]
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But with all the extracting of oil there comes high environmentally costs.
 +
The extracting of natural gas on land can be done via hydraulic fracking methods. Fracking is a highly used method, in which rock is split up with pressurized liquids. Since the fracturing of the rock is not controllable, it can happen that cracks reach up to the ground water and contaminate it. This results in not only harming the people living in these areas, but also the local ecosystems.
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Since the demand on petrochemicals produced by cheap oil or natural gas increases, there is a big rise in building petrochemical factories. Although, during the production, these factories produce massive amounts of greenhouse gases. In comparison, a coal plant running at full capacity around the clock will release about 4.6 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, while a petrochemical factory in Louisiana emits 9 million tons of greenhouse gases per year. [https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Petrochemical%20Industry%20Pollution.pdf] All this pollution of the atmosphere leads to smog and acid rain. Additionally, the greenhouse gases warm up the earth, melting the polar caps and rising water levels.
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The rise of the water level then endangers oil refineries, which are built at a certain level above the water, but cannot change their initial height. As an example, an oil refinery near New Castle is endangered by severe storms [https://grist.org/climate-energy/oil-refinery-threatened-by-sea-level-rise-asks-government-to-fix-problem/]. Over the past decades, there were some catastrophes with oil spills, that leaked from fractured factories and hat major impact on the local sea life. This is why it factories like the one near New Castle is not only endangered by itself, but is also a high risk for its environment.
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===The solution===
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To sum up all the above, there is a great need for an alternative to petrochemicals.
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As reported by the Center for international environmental law, more than 99% of plastic is produced using petrochemicals. This is why, we want to particularly challenge the plastic production, to change the reliability on petrochemicals and thereby reduce the demand of producing these chemicals and indirectly decreasing the need of oil and natural gas extraction.  
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In Detail, we chose to provide a sustainable, environmentally friendly synthesis of PLGA and PLGC. These polymers are not only biodegradable, but also useful for a wide field of applications, such as drug delivery systems, prosthetic implants or cosmetic products. They consist of three monomers: glycolic acid and lactic acid (to form PLGA) and caprolactone (to form PLGC together with glycolic acid and lactic acid). To ensure the green monomer manufacturing, we engineered the glyoxylate cycle of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
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With this alternative to petrochemicals we hope, to in the future, make it possible to meet climate, air quality and water pollution goals.

Revision as of 08:13, 14 October 2018

The problem

Think of petrochemicals as specific chemical compounds, which can be manufactured from oil, natural gas, coal or other sources. However, the majority of petrochemicals are derived from oil or natural gas. [1]

These chemicals are mainly used for the production of plastic, digital devices, clothes and tires. [ https://outreach.afpm.org/Petrochemicals/why-petrochemicals-matter-to-you-2.html] According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) petrochemicals will be the largest driver of oil demand in the future. [2] But with all the extracting of oil there comes high environmentally costs. The extracting of natural gas on land can be done via hydraulic fracking methods. Fracking is a highly used method, in which rock is split up with pressurized liquids. Since the fracturing of the rock is not controllable, it can happen that cracks reach up to the ground water and contaminate it. This results in not only harming the people living in these areas, but also the local ecosystems. Since the demand on petrochemicals produced by cheap oil or natural gas increases, there is a big rise in building petrochemical factories. Although, during the production, these factories produce massive amounts of greenhouse gases. In comparison, a coal plant running at full capacity around the clock will release about 4.6 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, while a petrochemical factory in Louisiana emits 9 million tons of greenhouse gases per year. [3] All this pollution of the atmosphere leads to smog and acid rain. Additionally, the greenhouse gases warm up the earth, melting the polar caps and rising water levels. The rise of the water level then endangers oil refineries, which are built at a certain level above the water, but cannot change their initial height. As an example, an oil refinery near New Castle is endangered by severe storms [4]. Over the past decades, there were some catastrophes with oil spills, that leaked from fractured factories and hat major impact on the local sea life. This is why it factories like the one near New Castle is not only endangered by itself, but is also a high risk for its environment.

The solution

To sum up all the above, there is a great need for an alternative to petrochemicals. As reported by the Center for international environmental law, more than 99% of plastic is produced using petrochemicals. This is why, we want to particularly challenge the plastic production, to change the reliability on petrochemicals and thereby reduce the demand of producing these chemicals and indirectly decreasing the need of oil and natural gas extraction. In Detail, we chose to provide a sustainable, environmentally friendly synthesis of PLGA and PLGC. These polymers are not only biodegradable, but also useful for a wide field of applications, such as drug delivery systems, prosthetic implants or cosmetic products. They consist of three monomers: glycolic acid and lactic acid (to form PLGA) and caprolactone (to form PLGC together with glycolic acid and lactic acid). To ensure the green monomer manufacturing, we engineered the glyoxylate cycle of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. With this alternative to petrochemicals we hope, to in the future, make it possible to meet climate, air quality and water pollution goals.