An engineered PET depolymerase to break down and recycle plastic bottles
Vincent Tournier,Christopher M. Topham,A. Gilles,B. David,C. Folgoas,Elisabeth Moya-Leclair,E. Kamionka,Marie-Laure Desrousseaux,Helene Texier,S. Gavalda,M. Cot,E. Guémard,M. Dalibey,J. Nomme,Gianluca Cioci,Sophie Barbe,Michel Chateau,Isabelle André,Sophie Duquesne,Alain Marty +19 more
TLDR
Computer-aided engineering produces improvements to an enzyme that breaks down poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) into its constituent monomers, which are used to synthesize PET of near-petrochemical grade that can be further processed into bottles.Abstract:
Present estimates suggest that of the 359 million tons of plastics produced annually worldwide1, 150–200 million tons accumulate in landfill or in the natural environment2. Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is the most abundant polyester plastic, with almost 70 million tons manufactured annually worldwide for use in textiles and packaging3. The main recycling process for PET, via thermomechanical means, results in a loss of mechanical properties4. Consequently, de novo synthesis is preferred and PET waste continues to accumulate. With a high ratio of aromatic terephthalate units—which reduce chain mobility—PET is a polyester that is extremely difficult to hydrolyse5. Several PET hydrolase enzymes have been reported, but show limited productivity6,7. Here we describe an improved PET hydrolase that ultimately achieves, over 10 hours, a minimum of 90 per cent PET depolymerization into monomers, with a productivity of 16.7 grams of terephthalate per litre per hour (200 grams per kilogram of PET suspension, with an enzyme concentration of 3 milligrams per gram of PET). This highly efficient, optimized enzyme outperforms all PET hydrolases reported so far, including an enzyme8,9 from the bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis strain 201-F6 (even assisted by a secondary enzyme10) and related improved variants11–14 that have attracted recent interest. We also show that biologically recycled PET exhibiting the same properties as petrochemical PET can be produced from enzymatically depolymerized PET waste, before being processed into bottles, thereby contributing towards the concept of a circular PET economy. Computer-aided engineering produces improvements to an enzyme that breaks down poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) into its constituent monomers, which are used to synthesize PET of near-petrochemical grade that can be further processed into bottles.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Biocatalysis: Enzymatic Synthesis for Industrial Applications
TL;DR: A review of biocatalysis with a special focus on scalable chemical production using enzymes discusses the opportunities and limitations of enzymatic syntheses using distinct examples and provides an outlook on emerging enzyme classes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Bioplastics for a circular economy
TL;DR: In this paper , the advantages and challenges of bioplastics in transitioning towards a circular economy are assessed. But these benefits can have trade-offs, including negative agricultural impacts, competition with food production, unclear EOL management and higher costs.
Journal ArticleDOI
Chemical and biological catalysis for plastics recycling and upcycling
Lucas D. Ellis,Nicholas A. Rorrer,Kevin P. Sullivan,Maike Otto,John McGeehan,Yuriy Román-Leshkov,Nick Wierckx,Gregg T. Beckham +7 more
TL;DR: In this article, the challenges and opportunities associated with the catalytic transformation of waste plastics, looking at both chemical and biological approaches to transforming such spent materials into a resource, are explored and compared.
Journal ArticleDOI
Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization
Hongyuan Lu,Daniel J. Diaz,Natalie Czarnecki,Congzhi Zhu,Wan Sung Kim,Raghav Shroff,Daniel J Acosta,Brad Alexander,Hannah O. Cole,Yan Zhang,Nathaniel A. Lynd,Andrew D. Ellington,Hal S. Alper +12 more
TL;DR: The results demonstrate a viable route for enzymatic plastic recycling at the industrial scale and a closed-loop PET recycling process by using FAST-PETase and resynthesizing PET from the recovered monomers.
Journal ArticleDOI
The chemistry of chemical recycling of solid plastic waste via pyrolysis and gasification: State-of-the-art, challenges, and future directions
Onur Dogu,Matteo Pelucchi,Ruben Van de Vijver,Paul Van Steenberge,Dagmar R. D'hooge,Alberto Cuoci,Marco Mehl,Alessio Frassoldati,Tiziano Faravelli,Kevin Van Geem +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, an improved deterministic kinetic model for the dominating reaction families of solid plastic waste (SPW) was proposed to identify the leading recycling technologies, minimizing the global warming potential in an industrial context.
References
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Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made
TL;DR: By identifying and synthesizing dispersed data on production, use, and end-of-life management of polymer resins, synthetic fibers, and additives, this work presents the first global analysis of all mass-produced plastics ever manufactured.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Bacterium That Degrades and Assimilates Poly(ethylene Terephthalate)
Shosuke Yoshida,Kazumi Hiraga,Toshihiko Takehana,Ikuo Taniguchi,Hironao Yamaji,Yasuhito Maeda,Kiyotsuna Toyohara,Kenji Miyamoto,Yoshiharu Kimura,Kohei Oda +9 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a new bacterium, Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, was found to be able to use PET as its major energy and carbon source, producing two enzymes capable of hydrolyzing PET and the reaction intermediate, mono(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalic acid.
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Mechanical and chemical recycling of solid plastic waste.
TL;DR: This review presents a comprehensive description of the current pathways for recycling of polymers, via both mechanical and chemical recycling, and discusses the main challenges and some potential remedies to these recycling strategies, thus providing an academic angle as well as an applied one.
A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly (ethylene terephthalate) and its enzymes involved in the degradation
TL;DR: A novel bacterium is isolated that is able to use PET as its major energy and carbon source and produces two enzymes capable of hydrolyzing PET and the reaction intermediate, mono(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol.
Journal ArticleDOI
Recycling of PET
Firas Awaja,Dumitru Pavel +1 more
TL;DR: The recycling of post-consumer PET (POSTC-PET) as a technology is a cross-disciplinary practice with many fields of science involved including polymer chemistry and physics, process engineering and manufacturing engineering.
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