Inspiration
The 5 Oceanic gyres killing millions of marine life each day, which is very apparent specially in turtles, the gyres keep on collecting world plastic wastes causing death to planktons as they float on the water surface blocking sunlight from reaching it when it needs photosynthesis to survive. Ideonella bacteria was discovered back in 2016 to be able to decompose plastic wastes to its key components (Ethylene Glycol and Terephthalate) in 60 Days, there were multiple researches after, it was found that the bacteria can perform much better at optimal conditions of 30 Degrees Celsius allowing it to decompose the same amount in 72 Hours instead of 60 days, another one of which was published on 2018 confirming that Protein engineering the bacteria boosts its performance by 2.1x, Allowing it to degrade 17.5 mg per μmol·L−1 PETase per day. Pyrolysis process is one of the best ways to turn waste plastic into money globally in terms of profitability, as all products are either oils, or pure black carbon.
What it does
The project consists of 2 solutions: first one being the Plastic eating bacteria, the idea is that the bacteria itself is being modified slightly for much higher results, and it doesn't require special environment conditions, it can actually survive at room temperature. The bacteria Releases PETase and MHETase which are both enzymes that assist the bacteria break down plastic wastes . The second one being the Pyrolysis process where the plastic wastes are thermally decomposed and separated into different oils, black carbon and solid residues (ash).
How I built it
The first solution needs multiple assets for sustainable usage and scalable results: 1-Ideonella farm ( the bacteria is constantly reproduced in a lab using E-coli reproduction) 2-Ideonella can live almost anywhere that contains plastic wastes, so the wastes are passed through a container full of the bacteria that is placed on top of a selectively permeable membrane depending on the size difference between the Plastic wastes in its industrial form, and the size of the 2 components which it will be decomposed into.
The second solution is a great opportunity for money making through plastic waste decomposition: 1-All plastic wastes are passed through a shredder, then into a Pyrolyzer which acts as the thermal decomposer, at 450C allowing Residues to fall down and all oils, and gases are in a gaseous state which goes through density based separation.
Challenges I ran into
1- Ideonella being too slow even after modification (1 Complete day to decompose).
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
What I learned
What's next for Pyronella
1- Collecting a sample of Ideonella and further testing its scalability from (https://catalog.bcrc.firdi.org.tw/BcrcContent?bid=81045). 2- Trying multiple setups in order to ensure smoothest flow of wastes through the process.
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