Research turns poo to plastic (9/17/2007)

Professor Lant, Steven Pratt and Damien Batstone

University of Queensland researchers are tapping into the power of wastewater to produce environmentally-friendly plastics.

Associate Professor Paul Lant and colleagues from UQ's Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), are working on turning biosolids from wastewater into biodegradable plastic.

Dr Lant said this process could replace current plastic production that relied on fossil fuels.

"The process involves adding a bacteria to the biosolids to produce PHA, which is a fully biodegradable polymer," Dr Lant said.

"At the moment the biosolids from sewage treatment plants go into landfill.

"This is a way to use this massive amount of waste product to produce something in a sustainable way."

Dr Lant said PHA plastic was already being used in various ways around the world but was more expensive than traditional plastics.

"One of the challenges of our research is to make the process cheaper," he said.

"We are also trying to control the quality of the plastic made by the bacteria to make it more commercially advantageous.

"We know there is a market out there for this product, we just have to deliver it in a more productive and higher quality way.

"And the benefits to councils and government who have to deal with waste is enormous.

"This is a product that not only reduces costs associated with disposing of biosolids, but could also potentially make money."

This research is supported by International Science Linkages (ISL) established under the Australian Government's innovation statement, Backing Australia's Ability.

The UQ team will link with leading researchers in Europe after receiving $837,000 from the ISL grant, which was also the largest awarded in Round 11 of the scheme.

The AWMC is a leading Australian research group in biological wastewater treatment and one of the leading centres in the world. The group aims to be an international centre of excellence in innovative wastewater technology and management through expertise in education, research and consulting.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by The University of Queensland

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