Imagine if it were possible to grow biodegradable plastics within the leaves of trees.

Oregon BEST researchers Steven Strauss and Ganti Murthy at Oregon State University are using a proposal matching grant from Oregon BEST to explore if this might be feasible in hybrid polar trees grown in the Pacific Northwest.

If even a small fraction of the worldwide plastic production of 200 billion pounds per year could be replaced with a percentage of biopolymers, it should improve the environmental health of the planet and positively impact the $300-$500 billion global plastics market.

Strauss and Murthy are collaborating with Portland, Ore.-based GreenWood Resources, one of the largest hybrid poplar growers in the Pacific Northwest. The researchers say funding from Oregon BEST was very important  to securing almost $160,000 from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation to carry out the initial stages of the research.

“Without the match funding from Oregon BEST, I’m not sure we would have had sufficient match funding for the project ” Strauss says.

The project is an ideal fit for Oregon BEST, whose mission is connecting local businesses with university researchers to transform research into potential new products and jobs.

Strauss, a professor in the Dept. of Forest Ecosystems and Society at OSU, has collaborated with GreenWood Resources in the past. “The people at GreenWood are very wonderful, honest and collaborative folks,” he says.

Jake Eaton, GreenWood’s Managing Director of Global Acquisitions and Resource Planning, says that company has had a long history of successful collaboration with OSU, and this project is the latest example.

“Using a renewable resource like poplar trees to produce biopolymers would be revolutionary,” Eaton says. “And it would ultimately benefit GreenWood Resources, Oregon, and the world."

Although some research into producing the biopolymer PHB (Polyhydroxybutyrate) in bacteria and other plants has been done, nobody has taken  a serious look at trees as a potential source.

“This is the first time this has been done in the U.S.—exploring a dedicated energy system with trees,” says Strauss.

Although the biological yield potential and economics of PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate) production in a woody plant system is unclear, Strauss and Murthy have found in preliminary work that significant levels of PHB can be produced in poplar with no apparent negative effects on plant health.

Major goals for the work are to improve yields by new genetic modifications, and to estimate what the yields will need to be for substantial economic and environmental benefits.

“The net greenhouse gas benefits of doing this with poplar is expected to be greater than with other plants, which require more fertilizer, more frequent plowing and harvesting, and often more pesticides,” Strauss says.

The other objectives of the project are to develop practical methods for extraction and bioprocessing of PHB, examine the effects of PHB production on tree health, and analyze the regulatory feasibility of PHB production. GreenWood Resources is playing a critical role by supplying economic data and advising  Murthy and Strauss on sustainability/life cycle assessment modeling.

“GreenWood will help us make sure this would work in the field and isn’t just crazy academic modeling,” says Strauss, who is concentrating on the genetics and propagation side of the project. “They want to be a greener company, and they’ll learn some things about carbon neutrality of their current operations by way of the carbon benefit models we develop.”

Murthy, a professor of renewable bioresources at OSU, is engaged in sampling and developing models of various extraction systems that could be used to extract PHB from the poplar leaves.

Strauss and Murthy are intensively collaborating with David Dalton, a professor at Reed College and a co-PI on the project. Dalton became engaged in the work during a sabbatical in Strauss’ laboratory last year, and Reed students are taking on parts of the work as senior thesis projects. 

Dalton, Murthy, Strauss are both hopeful the research might result in a new renewable source for plastics, additional research funding, and more business for Oregon companies.