Engineering Enzymes to Help Solve the Plastic Waste

News- Researchers from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB) (UK) have developed a new enzyme engineering platform to improve plastic degrading enzymes.

To illustrate the utility of their platform, they have engineered an enzyme that can successfully degrade poly (ethylene) terephthalate (PET), the plastic commonly used in plastic bottles.

In recent years, the enzymatic recycling of plastics has emerged as an attractive and environmentally friendly strategy to help alleviate the problems associated with plastic waste. Although there are a number of existing methods for recycling plastics, enzymes could potentially offer a more cost-effective and energy efficient alternative. In addition, they could be used to selectively breakdown specific components of mixed plastic waste streams that are currently difficult to recycle using existing technologies.

However, there are considerable hurdles, one challenge, for instance, is that natural enzymes with the ability to break down plastics typically are less effective and are unstable under the conditions needed for an industrial-scale process.

To address these limitations, in the current project, researchers from The University of Manchester have reported a new enzyme engineering platform that can quickly improve the properties of plastic degrading enzymes to help make them more suitable for plastic recycling at large scales.

To test their platform, they went on to develop a new enzyme, which is active at 70°C (above the glass transition temperature of PET). This enzyme can depolymerise semi-crystalline PET more rapidly than previously reported enzymes.

The development of robust plastic degrading enzymes such as HotPETase, along with the availability of a versatile enzyme engineering platform, make important contributions towards the development of a biotechnological solution to the plastic waste challenge.

11.08.2022

Ref: www.sciencedaily.com

This post is also available in: Persian