<li>Another topic of discussion was if their bacteria was engineered in some way, or if they would like them to. Their system uses naturally occurring bacteria that have not been genetically engineered in a lab. This is great, since any leakage of bacteria would not be harmful.</li>
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<p>Regarding our project, we would advise the following for designing a bioreactor that could possibly feed a PET slurry to engineered bacteria and extract useful chemicals such as PCA:</p>
<li>It’s always best to use non-GMO in case of leakage, or to design the GMO so that it will die when it is moved outside of the bioreactor. There are several strategies for this already established, but for our system it would mean that another set of genes would have to be inserted in addition to the PET-degrading genes.</li>
<li>The plastic would have to be treated before entering the bioreactor so that it would not contaminate it. Heat would be an option, especially since heat would start the process of loosening the PET-molecules from each other and making it easier for the degrading enzymes to access the PET-chains.</li>
<li>As opposed to the slurry fed to the bacteria of Uppsala vatten, the E. coli would get a PET slurry. Would the culture need supplements? Monitoring oxygen levels and pH would be smart, but how would the bioreactor need to be designed so that for example oxygen could be pumped in? Bioreactors used for pharmaceutical production are large compared to our lab bench systems, but a bioreactor able to take care of plastic waste from a smaller city would need to be of a significantly larger size. It would, no doubt, take a lot of talented engineers to design such a system for keeping GMO happy and the world outside safe from any leakage.</li>
