Turning Plastic into Vanilla – Serene’s Synopsis 37
Vanilla’s signature flavor is due mainly to the chemical compound vanillin, which can be synthetically produced to avoid the high costs of growing vanilla beans. There is a huge demand for vanillin, and 85% of it is currently made from chemicals derived from fossil fuels.
However, scientists have recently discovered a novel way to produce vanillin: old discarded plastic.
Microplastics can transfer toxic contaminants on their surface to the organism that ingests it. Since there is so much in the ocean, it’s eaten by marine wildlife, which is then transferred to humans that consume aquatic animals. Fortunately, there may be an organism that can relieve the impact of wasted plastic.
The bacterium Ideonella Sakaiensis eats polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. This bacterium produces the PETase enzyme which can break PET plastic down into its monomers, which can be further broken down by the bacteria for energy. Scientists are attempting to genetically engineer other bacteria that create enzymes more efficiently to produce more PETase, and have already genetically engineered PETase to be six times faster at digesting plastic by combining it with MHETase, another plastic-eating enzyme. This new PETase-MHETase enzyme can break down polyethylene furanoate, a bioplastic, as well.
The monomers of PET plastic are terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol, and terephthalic acid is extremely structurally similar to vanillin. E. coli is very prolific at creating enzymes, and can efficiently convert terephthalic acid into vanillin. Through a series of chemical reactions, researchers have been using E. coli to turn wasted PET plastic into vanillin. Scientists kept a genetically engineered E. coli with the terephthalic acid at 98.6° F for 24 hours, and about 79% of it was converted into vanillin.
Scientists are determined to engineer the bacteria to be more efficient and to expand the procedure to convert greater quantities of plastic. Additionally, there are other useful molecules can be derived from terephthalic acid, including some used in perfumes.
The potential that this process has is astounding; it addresses the plastic pollution crisis and generates a product for which the global demand was more than 40,000 tons in 2018. This innovative process is proudly sustainable, paving an efficient road for vanillin production whilst also decreasing dependence on fossil fuels.
I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of this before, but this is awesome. I can’t believe that we can be turning unrecyclable garbage into the characteristic flavor of vanilla. This process is mind-blowing, and really makes me wonder where our limits are. Sure, vanillin is chemically similar to terephthalic acid, but surely there’s a bunch of other incredible stuff we can be making with genetic engineering like this.
This is so cool. I love learning about genetic engineering, and this is like the coolest and most useful thing I’ve learned about it.
Anyways, as promised, next week I will return to consumer choices to combat climate change, so stay tuned to learn with me!
https://www.livescience.com/plastic-eating-bacteria
https://www.livescience.com/vanilla-flavor-plastic-waste.html