Our Science

At Micromidas, we view current soil and water pollution challenges as exciting world-wide business opportunities. Every day millions of tons of petroleum-based plastics waste accumulate in the environment, resulting in growing non-degradable landfills and escalating waste disposal costs. Micromidas technology solutions directly address these problems.

By applying naturally occurring microbial processes, the company converts carbon found in organic wastewater in to polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a family of high-performance, highly marketable biodegradable plastics possessing excellent physical properties suitable for a wide range of industrial applications. Our bio-refinery processes consume carbon and other nutrients from waste streams, greatly reducing sludge waste, chemical treatment, incineration, and disposal costs.

Using microbes native to earth’s soil and water, Micromidas has created a biological population capable of producing high yields of PHA, while processing a wide variety of carbon sources. The company fuels the microbial population from municipal wastewater streams which are cheap, readily available, and renewable feedstock sources. By designing around the “dirtiest” and most challenging waste streams available, the company has developed a robust population that resists environmental stresses. The Micromidas bio-refinery processes are far more robust than those dependent on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which require strict environmental controls, sterile operating conditions, and very expensive feedstocks.

PHAs

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are bacterial polyesters that are formed from a combination of monomer subunits, or “links”, found in the PHA molecular chain. There are over 150 different monomer subunits that have been found to exist in PHAs. By altering which links are in each PHA molecule, the resulting plastics can be produced with a wide variety of material properties, such as different measures of elasticity and hardness. All polyhydroxyalkanoates have similar features in common. PHAs are UV stable, resistant to permeation by water or aromas, and are resistant to temperature extremes, making them ideal for a range of industrial applications.

PHA Applications

Currently the most common form of PHA produced is a blend of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polyhydroxyvalerate (PHV). When PHB and PHV are combined in the proper amounts the resulting plastic has properties very similar to polypropylene (PP), the plastic used in many of today’s containers, housewares, and automotive parts.

Transitioning to a new, cleaner plastics alternative will be very straightforward for plastics manufacturers. Most machines used to produce petroleum-based plastics products should be able to use PHA as an alternative feedstock with only minor re-tooling.

In addition to the biodegradability of PHA, objects manufactured out of PHA are also biocompatible, gradually breaking down harmlessly within the body causing no damage or inflammation. This feature opens up a wide range of industrial applications, such as medical sutures, tissue repair devices, and other biomedical uses.

PHA - A Better Plastic

Unlike petroleum-based plastics that can take many centuries to degrade, PHA-based plastics are completely biodegradable when placed in decomposition environments such as landfills or composting sites. Further, if accidentally placed in the earth’s oceans PHA-based plastics completely degrade quickly, without any harmful side effects to sea life or the greater ocean environment from chemical residues or other pollutants.