PLA to be made from poo.

Nature Works just got $2.5 million in funding from the US department of energy to develop bio methane to lactic acid conversion technology; lactic acid being the main building block of PLA. Bio methane is derived from organic matter such as animal manure, sewage, and municipal solid waste. Poop is interesting: [youtu.be]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2014 06:50PM by DisruptiveTech.

Ive always wondered, how can we make printing PLA smell as bad as ABS

Basically corn is also made from poo and pee partially, fertilizer is used to give nutrients to the soil that grow corn. Unless they use artificial fertilizers.

However, it of course, is nonsense to state that it is 'made from poo'. There are so many refinements made to the materials they can hardly be qualified as being 'made from poo'

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

Somebody is going to have to contact the "South Park" producers about updating their "Cycle of Poo" song.....

next up poo poo filament.
But it's very environmental friendly.

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BotFeeder - Professional Manufactured 3D Filament

If they can make it out of bio methane, they can make it out of regular methane (natural gas). But if they started making PLA out of fossil fuels, I'd imagine it would hurt PLA's image as eco friendly, even though it'd still be biodegradable.

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DisruptiveTech
If they can make it out of bio methane, they can make it out of regular methane (natural gas). But if they started making PLA out of fossil fuels, I'd imagine it would hurt PLA's image as eco friendly, even though it'd still be biodegradable.

Good point you got there.
We're all living in an era that constantly looking for new source of energy.
If they're able to extract bio methane, it would be a breakthrough. A better future for all of us.

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BotFeeder - Professional Manufactured 3D Filament

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DisruptiveTech
If they can make it out of bio methane, they can make it out of regular methane (natural gas). But if they started making PLA out of fossil fuels, I'd imagine it would hurt PLA's image as eco friendly, even though it'd still be biodegradable.

It's not really biodegradable by nature anyway. Only if processed. I like to say it's Biobased.

What's really biodegradable to me? Stuff like Glycix!!! Check it out here: [www.biobasedpress.eu]

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

I wouldn't worry about plastic being biodegradable. Eventually, through natural selection or genitic engineering, microbes will evolve to eat plastics. There's a smorgasbord of high energy hydrocarbons just floating around in the ocean and in landfills waiting to be exploited.

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DisruptiveTech
I wouldn't worry about plastic being biodegradable. Eventually, through natural selection or genitic engineering, microbes will evolve to eat plastics. There's a smorgasbord of high energy hydrocarbons just floating around in the ocean and in landfills waiting to be exploited.

Just wait until those microbes escape from the laboratory and eat all the plastics in your house. Your synthetic clothes will just droop from your body and your phones, bracelets, everything will just disintegrate slowly haha. Would be quite funny if that could happen. Imagine me typing this message on my keyboard, while it slowly just gets eaten away from under mmmy fnnrgs.....

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

I knew that the DoE has a habit of sending my money down the crapper, but I never thought they'd be so literal about it.

Headline: "US government spends millions searching for a way to sell its citizens their own feces."

Explains why my prints are often crap.

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dave3d
Explains why my prints are often crap.

XD

i've certainly seen the DoE "waste" money in worse ways.....

(Just can't resist a combined Poop pun and Government spending combo)

Here's the article: [biomassmagazine.com]

Apparently, they've already done test a batch and they're going to begin production in 2-3 years. I think it'll probrably be a much better process than what they're doing now. People think if it's made out of corn, it must be eco friendly. But how eco friendly is PLA really?

Corn needs fertilizers and insecticides which are made from petrochemicals. Then there's the diesel to run the harvesters and the trucks to get it to the plant. Not to mention the land and water usage. Plus the processing plant that probrably runs on coal or natural gas. That's why ethanol never took off. It takes 1.3 gallons of oil to make 1 gallon of ethanol. But, it's all about marketing.

And really, what's $2.5 million? They'll make it back in taxes from Nature Works if they pump out more PLA.

Over half the population of the world cooks and heats their homes with cowpies. That's over four billion people. Using a PLA printed kitchen utensil isn't too much of a stretch in a household like that. I say it's an idea that could please half the world.

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T.S. Elliot wrote: "Between the idea and the reality, falls the shadow..." It's in that shadow world great discoveries are made.