NP Biopellets

[aurora]

Anyone using NP Biopellets in their system. The current TOTM owner swears by it and the concept is very intriguing. The product however is quite expensive currently...a lb set you back about $40. The nice thing is it's hard to overdose your tank with this stuff since biological activities depends on how much nitrate/phosphate you have in your system. The bacteriea grows on the surface of the pellets and consume the material as carbon fuel or essentially biodegrading the plastic resin in your tank. The material itself appears to be just plain old biodegradable plastic resin. There are only two major types of biodegradable starch polymer currently made plant products, PLA and PHA. A reefer on a Dutch forum thinks it's Mirel bioplastic resin made by Metabolix. This makes it a PHA-based starch polymer. If that's the case, we can just ask the company to package it and sell it directly to hobbyist. That should really reduce the cost. Anyone have additional info on this? Anyone using this stuff? I've dosed different forms of carbon in my tank including beer and this could really make even easier.

 

[aurora]

Interesting reading...it's amazing how this hobby has taught me about other things...

http://www.mirelplastics.com/imagesupl/020110_ Plastics Engineering (Cover).pdf

 

[mark54321]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1694529

Here is good thread on this subject

 

[tozzi]

The product however is quite expensive currently...a lb set you back about $40.

Really when you consider you only add some pellets around every 3 months, its not that bad. Could make a cheap diy reactor and save money there too

 

[DarkXerox]

If it's PLA, a lot of companies make compostable utensils out of it. I assume the bacteria are using it as a lactate source, converting it back into pyruvate via LDH, then pushing it through the TCA cycle. Probably could throw the utensils in a cross-cut paper shredder (one rated to chop up CD's) and end up with decent sized fragments since surface area is going to be the key factor.

 

[Reefer Steve]

DarkXerox,

In my workplace we have TONS of those biodegredable cups and untensils. The package says they are made from corn. I wonder how theyd degrade in SW...

 

[PowermanKW]

If it's PLA, a lot of companies make compostable utensils out of it. I assume the bacteria are using it as a lactate source, converting it back into pyruvate via LDH, then pushing it through the TCA cycle. Probably could throw the utensils in a cross-cut paper shredder (one rated to chop up CD's) and end up with decent sized fragments since surface area is going to be the key factor.

You said a bunch of stuff I have no idea what you are talking about. I sure would appriciate your comments in my thread on the subject.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1861040

 

[StarF]

anyone know where you can buy those in Europe?

 

[aurora]

I called Jamplast (a distributor for NatureWorks PLA resin in N. America) and was quoted about $2 for a lb of PLA biopolymer resin. However, they come in different grades and I don't know which one I should get. I can't seem to find a distributor for Mirel though. They just opened a huge plan in April and should have a lot on the market soon.

Powerman....The discussion of these pellets involves very little chemistry. It's more of a biodegradation process. I read your post in the chemistry forum and left a post to clarify the point on carbon dosing. I'll repeat it here also for those who are similarly confused:

"There seem to be a confusion on carbon here. When we talk about carbon-dosing in this setting, we are talking about biofuel or organic carbons. These are long chain carbons that living organism use for fuel by breaking the bonds that hold these chains of carbon together. We human and other mammals use glucose as our primary fuel. Various bacteria can use different forms of chained carbons for fuel. Something is biodegradable if you can find a bacteria to eat it. That is why plastic from fossil fuel does not degrade because bacteria cannot use it as fuel and break it down. The final product of carbon biodegradation is CO2 which has only one carbon left. This is also not the same INORGANIC carbon that are in activated charcoal we use to clean our tank water with. So when we talk about carbon leaching, it's with inorganic carbon and totally unrelated to this discussion."