Plastic from Plants Not Oil

[graphic from here]

If we run out of oil where will our plastic come from? From plants, using biotechnology of course.

Scientists have discovered the most effective method yet to convert glucose, found in plants worldwide and nature's most abundant sugar, to Hydroxymethylfurfural - HMF, a chemical that can be broken into components for products now made from petroleum.

So glucose can be fermented into alcohol for fuel as well as HMF to make plastics. The big deal here is that researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has found a method that produces HMF in a very cost effective manner [original reference here].

Zhang and his colleagues have developed a catalysis process to transform the sugars into an organic compound called hydroxymethylfurfural, or HMF, which can be converted into polyester and a diesel-like fuel. The technique, which the researchers describe in last week's Science, yields almost 90 percent of HMF from fructose and 70 percent from glucose.

There goes the conservative argument that we need oil to make plastic.