UT Austin enzyme breaks down PET ‘in a week’
12/05/2022
A total of 51 different post-consumer plastic containers, five different polyester fibres and textiles, as well as PET water bottles were tested and found to “almost completely degrade” when faced with the new enzyme variant, known as FAST-PETase (ie, functional, active, stable and tolerant PETase), the authors said.
FAST-PETase was created by members of the research team who employed a machine learning model to engineer five mutations to PETase, a natural enzyme which supports bacterial degradation of PET plastics. These mutations can “quickly” depolymerise post-consumer PET at low temperatures - between 30 and 50 degrees Celsius - and using a range of pH levels, it was found. Some PET products could even be fully broken down into monomers within 24 hours.
“Through these more sustainable enzyme approaches, we can begin to envision a true circular plastics economy,” said a professor from UT Austin’s McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Hal Alper, the study’s corresponding author. “The possibilities are endless across industries to leverage this leading-edge recycling process.”
The team now intends to scale up enzyme production, in preparation for the patent-pending technology’s intended industrial and environmental application, the university said.
Image: Karina Tess via Unsplash.
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