[ExI] Fungi eat plastic and can survive without oxygen; may clean ocean and landfills

[rex]

John Grigg <possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com> [2015-05-08 00:25]:
>   "A group  of students  from  Yale's Department  of Molecular  Physics  and
>   Biochemistry traveled to  Ecuador and  found a  fungus that  wants to  eat
>   polyurethane.  This  new type  of fungus  can digest  polyurethane in  two
>   weeks, rather than the 1,000 years it would take just sitting around."
>
>   "It's the first  fungus ever  found to  survive on  only polyurethane,  no
>   oxygen needed,  which  is  why they  want  to  use it  at  the  bottom  of
>   landfills."
>
>   [1]https://www.minds.com/blog/view/428263953315926016/fungi-eat-plastic-and-can-survive-without-oxygen-may-clean-ocean-and-landfills

The usual reaction to make polyurethane is exothermic, so this fungus
cannot gain energy by reversing the polymerization. It must decompose
it into less energetic chemicals.

http://www1.chem.leeds.ac.uk/delights/texts/expt_31.html

OH–R–OH + OCN–R’–NCO      ==> [–CO–NH–R’-NH–CO–O–R–O–]n

Polyol  + Polyisocyanate  ==>       Polyurethane

-rex
-- 
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it." --Brian W. Kernighan