A much faster PET destroying enzyme has been isolated

There is a significant amount of research on PETase enzymes currently to help try and rid the world of our self made problem. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a thermoplastic polymer consisting of the ester-linked monomers terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG). PET is widely used in the food packaging industry and for the manufacture of textile fibres. Several enzymes of bacterial or fungal origin able to modify or degrade PET have been described. Thermostable cutinases and their homologues have been shown to be the most efficient catalysts to hydrolyze the ester bonds in PET. Scientists at Leipzig University have recently discovered a novel polyester hydrolase (PHL7), isolated from plant composts with a high efficiency to degrade amorphous PET films and post-consumer PET thermoform packaging. The researchers 7th enzyme investigated PHL7 caused the PET to decompose by 90 per cent; in the same time, previous hydrolases managed a degradation of just 45 per cent. So this enzyme is twice as active as the  previous best enzyme among polyester-cleaving hydrolases.

Photo Dr. Christian Sonnendecker et al.; Low Carbon Footprint Recycling of Post-Consumer PET Plastic with a Metagenomic Polyester Hydrolase; ChemSusChem



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