A University of Barcelona-led team has engineered a bacterium that turns unprocessed potato starch into polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a fully biodegradable plastic, in a single 24-hour step. The process bypasses the lengthy pre-treatment typically required for starch-based bioplastic production.
Petrochemical plastics generate hundreds of millions of tons of waste annually, much of which pollutes ecosystems or is incinerated, fueling greenhouse gas emissions. PHB offers a renewable alternative that degrades naturally, though its production has historically been slow and costly.
The study marks the first time PHB has been synthesized directly from raw potato starch without enzymatic or chemical pre-processing. The engineered bacterium performs both starch breakdown and polymer synthesis in one bioreactor, cutting production time dramatically.
If scaled, the method could reduce reliance on oil and shrink the volume of persistent plastic waste. The team plans to optimize the bacterium for industrial fermentation, potentially lowering costs enough to compete with conventional plastics.
Larger-scale trials and cost analysis are needed before commercial adoption becomes viable. Critics note that even biodegradable plastics require specific conditions to break down, which may not exist in all waste management systems.