Page 52 - Plastics News May 2022

TECHNOLOGY

New Plastic-Eating Enzyme To Supercharge Recycling Scientists Develop Cata-
lytic Hydrocracking For
Mixed Plastics

Johns Hopkins University team
A has developed a catalytic hy-
drocracking process that converts
mixed plastics into the chemicals
benzene, toluene and xylene. Led by
A this process, which included study- Chao Wang, the team over the past
team of chemical engineers and
two years developed a process that
scientists at The University of Tex- ing 51 different post-consumer plas-
as at Austin has created a new enzyme tic containers, five different polyester could be applied to mixed plastics
variant can break down environment- fibers and fabrics, and water bottles that would otherwise be landfilled by
materials recovery facilities, as well as
throttling plastics that typically take all made from PET, the researchers
scrap from other sources. Wang is an
centuries to degrade in just a matter proved the effectiveness of the enzyme, associate professor of chemical and
of hours to days. The enzyme has the which they are calling FAST-PETase biomolecular engineering and the
potential to supercharge recycling on a (functional, active, stable, and toler- director of the Nano Energy Labo-
large scale that would enable major in- ant PETase). “Beyond the obvious
ratory at Johns Hopkins University,
dustries to reduce their environmental waste management industry, this also
which is located in Baltimore, Md.
impact by recovering and reusing plas- provides corporations from every sec- He and Steve Goff, a technical con-
tics at the molecular level. “The pos- tor the opportunity to take a lead in sultant who previously worked for
sibilities are endless across industries recycling their products. Through these Covanta, are co-founding the startup
to leverage this leading-edge recycling more sustainable enzyme approaches, company CUPTech, which stands
process,” said Hal Alper, professor in we can begin to envision a true circu- for “chemical upcycling of plastics”
the McKetta Department of Chemical lar plastics economy.” “This work really technology, to commercialize the
Engineering at UT Austin. Researchers demonstrates the power of bringing to- technology. CUPTech’s catalytic hy-
at the Cockrell School of Engineering gether different disciplines, from syn- drocracking process is carried out
and College of Natural Sciences used thetic biology to chemical engineering at pressures just above ambient and
a machine learning model to generate to artificial intelligence,” said Andrew temperatures in the range of 700
novel mutations to a natural enzyme Ellington, professor in the Center for to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Wang
called PETase that allows bacteria to Systems and Synthetic Biology whose and Goff wrote in response to Plas-
degrade PET plastics. The model pre- team led the development of the ma- tics Recycling Update’s questions.
dicts which mutations in these enzymes chine learning model. Recycling is The output is a mix of the aromatic
would accomplish the goal of quickly the most obvious way to cut down on hydrocarbons benzene, toluene and
depolymerizing post-consumer waste plastic waste. But globally, less than xylene (BTX), which could be uti-
plastic at low temperatures. Through 10% of all plastic has been recycled. lized within the chemical industry.

52 PLASTICS NEWS May 2022