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TZID:Pacific/Honolulu
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CLASS:PUBLIC
CREATED:20260515T233136Z
DESCRIPTION:Can Microbial Intelligent Pathways Apply for Biodegradation of Plastics?\nDr. Hor-Gil Hur\nAs we feel and experience problems associated with various plastics, cleaning and recycling the waste plastics with non-hazardous and economically affordable methods are urgently demanded. Indeed, worldwide annual production of plastics amounts from 350 to 400 MT. Among the various plastics produced, polyethylene and polypropylene represent about 92% of the synthetic plastics produced, which are mostly used in the production of plastic bags, disposable containers, bottles, packaging materials, etc. One question is “Can accumulated current information about microbial physiology and biochemistry for biodegradation mechanisms, from C1 compound methane to polymer lignin, shed light on cleaning the plastic polymers?” There have been numerous articles for microbial biodegradation of plastic polymers. In microbial communities, however, they believe that plastics with oxygen-incorporated functional groups, such as PET and polyurethane, might be subjected to biodegradation, but plastics without oxygen in the crystalline film plastic structure—like low-density and high-density polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene—cannot be. In the given time of the session, Dr. Hur will share lessons learned from microbial oxidation processes to various compounds, from methane to lignin, to encourage participants to clean plastic wastes through environmentally friendly methods.
DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Honolulu:20260210T020000Z
DTSTAMP:20260515T233136Z
DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Honolulu:20260210T010000Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260515T233136Z
LOCATION:Kuykendall Hall Room 201 and Zoom
PRIORITY:5
SEQUENCE:0
SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-us:WRRC 2026 Spring Seminar
TRANSP:OPAQUE
UID:177892389645022web-support-l@lists.hawaii.edu
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