Bioplastic innovation

Styrene is one of the major building-block chemicals used to make many of the rubbery polymers and plastic materials we use today. More than 6 billion tons of it is manufactured each year in the United States alone, most of which goes into producing insulating materials, automobile tires, footwear, medical devices and hundreds of other widely used products. The problem is that all styrene is currently derived from a dwindling resource – petroleum – and its production requires one of the most energy-intensive processes in the petrochemical manufacturing industry. More than three metric tons of steam is necessary to produce just one metric ton of styrene. That excessive energy consumption also produces significant amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to the detrimental buildup of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere.

At Arizona State University, David Nielsen and Rebekah McKenna are seeking ways to make styrene – and other common petrochemicals – using renewable resources. They want to produce materials that are more sustainable, require less energy to produce, and alleviate negative environmental impacts when they are manufactured. Nielsen is an assistant professor of Chemical Engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transportation and Energy, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. McKenna is studying to earn a doctoral degree in chemical engineering. They’re experimenting with engineering microorganisms to act as catalysts for making styrene from renewable resources – in this case biological materials, like sugars from plants.

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