Page 45 - Plastics News October 2020

SK Innovation prototypes solvent and lube base oil by recycling waste plastics

K Innovation's technology research center has
Ssuccessfully prototyped production-grade solvent
and lube base oil with significantly reduced impurities
based on pyrolysis oil extracted from waste plastics, the
company said. Pyrolysis is a technology that converts
plastics into oil and fuel by heating plastics in the
absence of oxygen. The solvent to be used as thinner or
diluent features high paraffin content and low odor and
lube base oil was tested to make base oil with the highest
quality, the company said. Lube base oil is used as a raw
material of lubricants for industrial use among others.
The plastic recycling project led by SK Global Chemical,
the subsidiary of SK Innovation's chemical business, is
part of environmental, social and governance (ESG)
initiatives which have been implemented under the through continuous R&D and business expansion. SK
company's strategy 'Green for Better Life.' ESG criteria Global Chemical also expects social value creation from
are a set of standards for business operations that partnership with suppliers and collaborators for the
socially conscious investors use to review potential plastic recycling project. Earlier in June this year the
investments with growing attention to non-financial company had signed a contract with Jeju Clean Energy to
performance measures. SK global chemical, a chemicals cooperate in upcycling technology to produce pyrolysis-
subsidiary, has driven the development of Korea's derived fuel oil from waste plastics. The signing
petrochemical industry and continues to take the lead ceremony was held online due to COVID-19.

Plastic-eating enzyme 'cocktail' heralds new hope for Plastic waste
Portsmouth, and Dr Gregg Beckham, Senior Research
Fellow at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL) in the US. Professor McGeehan said: "Our first
experiments showed that how PETase attacks the
surface of the plastics and MHETase chops things up
further. We were delighted to see that our new chimeric
enzyme is up to three times faster than the naturally
evolved separate enzymes, opening new avenues for
further improvements." The original PETase enzyme
discovery heralded the first hope that a solution to the
global plastic pollution problem. Combining it with a
second enzyme, and finding together they work even
cientists at University of Portsmouth who re-
faster, means another leap forward has been taken
Sengineered the plastic-eating enzyme PETase earlier
towards finding a solution to plastic waste. PETase and
have now created an enzyme 'cocktail' which can digest
the new combined MHETase-PETase both work by
plastic up to six times faster. A second enzyme called
digesting PET plastic, returning it to its original building
MHETase, found in the same rubbish dwelling bacterium
blocks. This allows for plastics to be made and reused
that lives on a diet of plastic bottles, has been combined
endlessly, reducing our reliance on fossil resources such
with PETase to speed up the breakdown of plastic. The
as oil and gas. The new research combined structural,
team was co-led by the scientists who engineered
computational, biochemical and bioinformatics
PETase, Professor John McGeehan, Director of the
approaches to reveal molecular insights into its
Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI) at the University of
structure and how it functions.

October 2020 45 Plastics News