Bio Pellets or Vodka?

[biom]

Awesome, thank you for sharing the blend. Did you you ramp up to the amount that you are currently using as a maintenance dose? If I were to use your custom blend, is there any words of advice that you would share?

You are welcome. It is not my invention, we copied NOPOX recipe in another forum. Yes I started with 0.5 ml per 25 gal and it took me about month to find maintenance dose.

 

[leptang]

We harvest it from them and use it to make picnic forks, medical devices and to clean up aquariums.

Don't even get me started on how we now have genetically manipulated plants to produce PHA.

so your telling me my picnic forks are made from bacteria poop? Great, all this time I had no idea.

 

[Jon Warner]

so your telling me my picnic forks are made from bacteria poop? Great, all this time I had no idea.

to be honest I don't know of any PHA plastic utensils lol... but they COULD make them if they wanted to!

 

[Ike]

absolutely correct.

PHA is produced by bacteria and forms intracellular globs in the bacterium. Biochemical engineers use environmental triggers to force the bacteria into the PHA production mode. Then they use various methods to separate the PHA from the biomass. The better procedure is to use a water separation method while some use a solvent based separation method. In the vernacular, there are no "chemicals" in bio-polymer. Some forms of PHA are registered by the FDA as approved for medical use in extended release dosing or soluble devices.

How cool is that? Some specific strains of bacteria make their own food supply in anticipation of a rainy day. We harvest it from them and use it to make picnic forks, medical devices and to clean up aquariums.

Don't even get me started on how we now have genetically manipulated plants to produce PHA.

I believe most biodegradable utensils, diapers, tea bags, plastic bags, etc. are PLA. To my knowledge the plants aren't modified to produce more PLA, but because corn and soybean are used there will be genetically modified plants used. However, since there is no genetic footprint with PLA, you're not actually consuming GMO if what you're consuming has been packed or consumed with PLA. You are however supporting GMO farms in some round about way, but that's still better than petroleum based plastics IMO. What these companies with biodegradable PLA products often don't tell consumers, is that in order to degrade with any speed, the products need to be put into a commercial heated compost. Then it's further complicated by things like diapers, which aren't allowed in composts because they're a mix of materials since they need to use traditional diaper material as well since PLA isn't very absorbent.

Here's an interesting article on degradation of PLA and PHA in the marine environment.

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publications/Documents/1435\20121435.pdf

 

[Jon Warner]

I believe most biodegradable utensils, diapers, tea bags, plastic bags, etc. are PLA. To my knowledge the plants aren't modified to produce more PLA, but because corn and soybean are used there will be genetically modified plants used. However, since there is no genetic footprint with PLA, you're not actually consuming GMO if what you're consuming has been packed or consumed with PLA. You are however supporting GMO farms in some round about way, but that's still better than petroleum based plastics IMO. What these companies with biodegradable PLA products often don't tell consumers, is that in order to degrade with any speed, the products need to be put into a commercial heated compost. Then it's further complicated by things like diapers, which aren't allowed in composts because they're a mix of materials since they need to use traditional diaper material as well since PLA isn't very absorbent.

Here's an interesting article on degradation of PLA and PHA in the marine environment.

http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publications/Documents/1435\20121435.pdf

see my post above... the picnic fork comment was "tongue in cheek"

And YES indeed plants are now producing PHA

Switchgrass: A bio-plastics factory

http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/2142/switchgrass-a-bioplastic-factory

In addition, the company recently announced the results of greenhouse trials of switchgrass plants engineered to produce significant amounts of PHA bioplastics in leaf tissues.