Biodegradable Polymer with Superior Properties from Palm Kernel Oil
Researchers:
Dr K. Sudesh
Judy Loo Ching Yee
Lee Wing Hin
Dr Takeharu Tsuge
A biopolymer with superior properties has been successfully produced from palm kernel oil. The process uses a special recombinant bacterium to synthesize a copolymer of poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) [P(3HB-co-3HHx)]. The researchers found that palm kernet oil could result in the accumulation of more than 85 wt% [P(3HB-co-3HHx)] of the dry cells weight, which means that 1 kg of the cell biomass can produce 0.8 kg bioplastics. This achievement has great impact on the reduction of cost as well as improvement of performance. In terms of cost, the production of this bioplastic (our product) is much more lower than other kinds of bioplastics available in the market. The current price of bioplastics [P(3HB)] from Brazil is at least RM 28/kg. By using palm kernel oil as the carbon source, we are able to bring down the cost of production to as low as RM 6-7/kg. In larger industrial scale, the production cost is expected to be only about 1.5-2 times the cost of synthetic petrochemical-based plastics.
Contact details of Dr K.Sudesh is available to registered journalists
