The low batch production of Polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHA is achieved through the nurture and growth of special microbes in a fermentation tank. It’s nothing new the science of PHA was first observed in the 1880s the first findings and potentials of PHA were reported in the 1930s as the benefits of plastics first became popular. The production and use of PHA as a safe plastic took off in the 1990s.
Producing PHA fuels, chemicals and materials through microbial fermentation is a natural process just like in our environment trees and plant soak up the air we breathe they consume the carbon in the air [think carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide] releasing oxygen to freshen and replenish the air. In an ideal microbial fermentation environment, PHA has fed Hydrogen Producer Gas a hydrogen synthesis gas, rich in carbon monoxide [CO] and carbon dioxide [CO2] together with a little methane [CH4] suspended in nitrogen [N]. The PHA microbes consume the Hydrogen Producer Gas carbon converting it into growth meanwhile releasing the hydrogen [H] which is collected and bottled as a byproduct.
Hydrogen Producers Gas is manufactured in an oxygen-starved environment where solid waste is converted into a gas in a thermochemical process with little oxygen in the process and that little oxygen is emitted as chemical water [H2O]. Just like in our oxygen-rich air environment the PHA microbes turn [sink] carbon into growth. To end the growing and life cycle of the PHA microbes they receive a simple starch
Alt leather PHA is nurtured in ideal anaerobic conditions of around 30 degrees celsius it provides the opportunity for the microbes to grow their full potential quickly. Unlike existing batch PHA facilities the TITAN and ASMARA platforms support continuous PHA production and since carbon-rich Hydrogen Producers Gas is also a continuous process scale can be achieved. The breakthrough return measured in grams per litre PHA production on a continuous scale has already been achieved by the top Microbial Fermentation pioneers and is ready to be commercialised on a much larger and wider scale to include alt leather collagen production.
Traditionally PHA was manufactured in batches in the lab for medical applications and where once the microbes are fully matured they are removed from the Microbial Fermentation Tank and treated to produce all manner of medical devices and for critical procedures to reconstruct bones, skin grafts and even rebuild organs. PHA are most notably biocompatible [unlike oil-based plastics] and they have been deployed successfully in medical surgery on mass for more than 30 years.
PHA can do everything downstream petrochemical thermoplastics can do and remarkably the ASMARA platform is designed to recycle discarded non-biodegradable thermoplastics and even plastics commingled with other waste streams into biodegradable PHA. PHA unlike oil-derived plastic and other materials is both biodegradable and biocompatible because PHA are “nature replicating” polymers and that’s why PHA produces compatible components our bodies do not reject. Of the many hundreds of studies and findings that have been concluded over more than three decades, no carcinogenesis results have been induced by any PHA or their PHA biodegradable products.
PHA is not just used in high-profile reconstructive surgery as PHA production is ramped up PHA devices are also becoming commonplace in hospitals and clinics worldwide for such purposes as sutures, body repair devices, repair patches, slings, cardiovascular patches, orthopaedic pins, medical adhesion barriers, stents, guided tissue repair devices, nerve guides, tendon repair, bone marrow scaffolds and wound dressings.
A key benefit of PHA is that it produces a nature-replicating polymer plastic, most biocompatible, biomedical products derived from PHA demonstrate tissue-compatible properties that stimulate growth when applied in certain medical procedures. Today heart valve tissue engineering, vascular and cartilage tissue engineering as well as bone reconstruction engineering and their advancement [and where tissue is required to regenerate] all rely on small-batch PHA Microbial Fermentation production
There are more than 150 common types of PHA bacteria known to produce a wide variety of applications and used in industry including PHA bacteria which produce alt leather collagen. Bacteria are suspended in neutral or nitrogen-rich environments [because nitrogen is inactive] and each of the many different PHA bacteria provides a specific outcome when force-fed [or stressed] with carbon
PHA has traditionally been an expensive process simply because sourcing carbon to stress the bacterias from which PHA are made has historically been expensive. However, Industrial Off-Gas and now Hydrogen Gas Producer platforms like TITAN and ASMARA provide both the technology and the means of scale to produce PHA at a whole new scale of production because they convert abundant waste into carbon-rich feedstock on mass. There are many applications for PHA through Microbial Fermentation including Ethanol and the replacement of each of the oil-based plastics as well as alt leather collagen.
Alt Leather Collagen a product of circularity
The collagen PHA application produces a natural leather substitute that looks like leather, feels like leather breathes and wears like leather because it has the same chemical structure as the leather. The microbes which produce alt leather collagen are fed a rich carbon source a product of end-of-life cycle extinction for abundant materials for which there is currently no end-of-life value proposition.
We produce more and more plastics, these plastics are commingled with all kinds of conglomerates which have and continue to defy commercial reasons for recycling. Hydrogen Producer Gas technology platforms like TITAN and ASMARA hand in hand with Microbial Fermentation create total circularity and with a twist because it will never be too late in our lifetime to collect and process almost all the plastics everywhere.
Steve Walker
Warsaw, June 30, 2022