The sustainable production of polystyrene

Polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics in modern day life, spanning across many industries. It is made from the polymerisaton of styrene, a predominantly synthetic substance which is produced naturally in small quantities in plants.

Currently styrene is produced using catalytic dehydrogenation of ethylbenze which is derived from petrochemical sources. It requires vast amounts of steam to catalyse the reaction and therefore uses huge amounts of energy. 

With a drive towards renewable energy sources, there has been a move towards more sustainable technologies and in particular, the use of biofermentative manufacturing techniques as a potential replacement for the energy intensive synthetic routes currently employed.

Styrene can be synthesised by several microorganisms; however, this is not a viable option due to the small yields produced. Biofermentative processes using engineered bacterial hosts promise to provide a sustainable method for the large scale production of styrene. The widespread use of this method has been hindered to date due to issues with toxicity and membrane stability. 

In order to understand the role of lipid chain composition on membrane stability, scientists from Lucite International and the University of Nottingham used Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) at Diamond to characterise the lipid membranes in the presence of styrene.

Find out what they discovered.