Biodegradation Research Papers

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Once inside the cell, the products enter catabolic pathways that either lead to the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or elements of the cells structure.

In practice, almost all chemical compounds and materials are subject to biodegradation processes.

The rate of biodegradation can be measured in a number of ways.

Respirometry tests can be used for aerobic microbes.

Some packaging materials on the other hand are being developed that would degrade readily upon exposure to the environment.

Examples of synthetic polymers that biodegrade quickly include polycaprolactone, other polyesters and aromatic-aliphatic esters, due to their ester bonds being susceptible to attack by water.The significance, however, is in the relative rates of such processes, such as days, weeks, years or centuries.A number of factors determine the rate at which this degradation of organic compounds occurs.Factors include light, water, oxygen and temperature.The degradation rate of many organic compounds is limited by their bioavailability, which is the rate at which a substance is absorbed into a system or made available at the site of physiological activity, as compounds must be released into solution before organisms can degrade them.Several materials will test as being biodegradable under optimal conditions in a lab for approval but these results may not reflect real world outcomes where factors are more variable.For example, a material may have tested as biodegrading at a high rate in the lab may not degrade at a high rate in a landfill because landfills often lack light, water, and microbial activity that are necessary for degradation to occur. Wiley Online Library requires cookies for authentication and use of other site features; therefore, cookies must be enabled to browse the site.Detailed information on how Wiley uses cookies can be found in our Privacy Policy.Starch-based plastics will degrade within two to four months in a home compost bin, while polylactic acid is largely undecomposed, requiring higher temperatures.Polycaprolactone and polycaprolactone-starch composites decompose slower, but the starch content accelerates decomposition by leaving behind a porous, high surface area polycaprolactone. In 2016, a bacterium named Ideonella sakaiensis was found to biodegrade PET.