This video shows the process:
https://mashable.com/video/enzyme-eat-plastic/?utm_cid=hp-n-2#FUW2p5Ozwaqt
It’s a potential breakthrough in the fight against plastic pollution—an enzyme that can digest plastic that is commonly found polluting our environment.
The discovery could oneday result in a recycling solution that can process millions of tonnes of plastic, made from polyethylene terephthalate (also known as PET), which currently persists in the environment for hundreds of years. The research was led by teams at the University of Portsmouth and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), with the results being published in the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The findings follow the discovery of an enzyme that had evolved to digest PET plastic, which is often used in the production of plastic bottles, food containers,and even fibers in clothes. Professor John McGeehan from the University of Portsmouth and Gregg Beckham at the NREL studied the crystal structure of this enzyme to understand how it works.
SERENDIPITY STRIKES
During the study, the team accidentally engineered a mutant version that is even better at degrading the plastic than the one that has evolved in nature.
The researchers are now working on further improving the effectiveness of the enzyme so it can be applied to industrial uses, where it may break down plastic in a fraction of the time.
McGeehan, director of the Institute of Biological and Biomedical Sciencesin the School of Biological Sciences at Portsmouth, said: “We can all play a significant part in dealing with the plastic problem, but the scientific community who ultimately created these ‘wonder materials’ must now use all the technology at their disposal to develop real solutions.”
ENZYME EVOLUTION
The breakthrough came through the examination of the structure of the enzyme that had evolved in nature and was thought to have been discovered in a recycling site in Japan. The aim was to understand how the enzyme had evolved and to see if it might be possible to improve it. During the study, however, the team accidently engineered an enzyme that was even better at breaking down PET plastic.“Serendipity often plays a significant role in fundamental scientific research and our discovery here is no exception,” McGeehan said.
“Although the improvement is modest, this unanticipated discovery suggests that there is room to further improve these enzymes, moving us closer to a recycling solution for the ever-growing mountain of discarded plastics.”
DISCARDED PLASTICS
The research team can now apply the tools of protein engineering and evolution to continue to improve the enzyme. The research also revealed that the enzyme can also degrade olyethylene furandicarboxylate, or PEF, a bio-based substitute for PET plastics that is being hailed as a replacement for glass beer bottles.
McGeehan said: “The engineering process is much the same as for enzymes currently being used in bio-washing detergents and in the manufacture of biofuels –it’s well within the possibility that in the coming years we will see an industrially viable process to turn PET and potentially other substrates like PEF, PLA, and PBS, back into their original building blocks so that they can be sustainably recycled.”