A team of researchers with the Composite and Nanocomposite
Advanced Manufacturing – Biomaterials Center (CNAM), led by David Salem, Ph.D.,
at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology are using microbes that were
discovered deep underground in the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF)
in an attempt to make low-cost plastics that are renewable and biodegradable.
“Most commercial polymers, or plastics are petroleum based
which is a non-renewable resource,” says Salem. The team is working to find
ways to mass manufacture low-cost plant based plastics and composites. “A problem
with bio-based polymers is they are expensive, and one goal of this center is
to use genetically engineered microbes to help reduce the cost of manufacturing
these kinds of plastics,” says Salem. “Another goal is to engineer the
properties of the biopolymers and biocomposites to serve a wide range of
commercial applications.”
There is a huge potential for new green-based manufacturing
jobs in the area if the center succeeds in developing mass manufacturing
techniques for turning plants into low-cost bio-based polymers.
“The top ten petroleum based polymers make up about a
$500-billion global market,” says Salem. “These biopolymers potentially can
cover the whole range of properties of those.”
A group, led by Rajesh Sani, Ph.D., from SD Mines’
Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, have isolated the SURF
extremophiles, or rare microbes that originally evolved in the high temperature
environment of the deep underground. This team is responsible for the
biosynthesis activities of the center. The researchers are genetically
engineering the extremophiles to help efficiently break down waste plant
material (biomass), like corn stover and pine tree biomass, and generate
low-cost biopolymers, or plastics. The microbes eat the plant material and produce
polymers that can then be made into various types of bio-based plastics and
lightweight and high-strength composites for industrial, consumer and
biomedical applications.
“Petroleum based plastics are not degradable. But,
bio-polymers are different, they will degrade over time instead of filling the
landfills and oceans with debris,” says Salem.
South Dakota’s Research and Commercialization Council (RCC) through
the Governor’s Research Center Program has awarded the SD Mines CNAM research
$1,806,427 over five years to develop commercially-viable processes for
manufacturing bio-polymers and high-performance bio-composites and
bio-nanocomposites.