Research: yellow powder insect can degrade polystyrene plastic
Research: yellow powder insect can degrade polystyrene plastic
Researchers in a new period of the American journal of environmental science and technology, the report says, yellow powder insect can be swallowed and fully biodegradable plastics, they have the yellow powder insect live on polystyrene was isolated bacteria in the body, and save it. The study provides the first scientific evidence that microbial biodegradable polystyrene provides new ideas for the use of biodegradable methods to control "white pollution".
The yellow powder worm is also known as the bread worm and is used in large quantities as animal feed. Previous researchers have claimed that degradation of polystyrene was isolated bacteria, but the lack of strong evidence of physical and chemical analysis support polystyrene by microbial degradation, and related microbes also not recognized by international center collection of microbes, so this type of research is not recognized by academic circles.
U.S. researchers at Stanford university and Beijing university of aeronautics and astronautics observed in the laboratory, 100 yellow powder insect can swallow 34 to 39 mg per day of polystyrene plastic, equivalent to the weight of a small pill. The plastic stays in the intestinal tract for less than 24 hours, about 48 percent of which are degraded into carbon dioxide and a small amount absorbed.
The study showed that the yellow pollinalis, a source of polystyrene, were just as healthy as the yellow pollinans, and their excretions could also be used to fertilise crops. The intestinal microorganism of the yellow pink insect plays a decisive role in the process of plastic decomposition. The researchers for the first time a strain isolated from yellow powder insect gut can use polystyrene and nutrients for the growth of bacteria, and to save the bacteria in the center of the China general microbiology microbial preservation management committee.
Study co-author at Stanford university, a senior researcher at Wu Wei people said that the latest research results of china-us joint team not only for the first time for microbial degradation plastics provides strong scientific evidence, also for the development of biological degradation of polystyrene plastics technology provides a new train of thought.
The joint team of China and the United States will further study the degradation of different plastics by the yellow powder insects and other insects, and provide the basis for the development of enzymes and other biodegradable technologies that control plastic pollution.
