Human ingenuity can handle plastic waste and recycling! No need for alarmism and hysteria over plastic!
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Chemical modification of lipase enhances stability and activity in ionic liquids
• Ionic liquids allow for rapid chemoenzymatic depolymerization of PLA at 90°C
• Post-consumer PLA fully water soluble within 24 h
• Post-consumer PLA fully converted to monomer within 40 h
Summary
The accumulation of plastic waste in the environment is an ecological disaster that requires a plurality of approaches to tackle. There is therefore an ever-pressing need to close the loop on production of both conventional and bioderived plastics. In response, we propose a generalizable biocatalysis engineering strategy to enhance the use of enzymes to depolymerize a broad class of plastics. To demonstrate this approach, we have solubilized and stabilized the commonly available lipase B from Candida antarctica in ionic liquids. In doing so, we unlock the ability of the enzyme to hydrolytically depolymerize post-consumer poly(lactic acid) plastic, demonstrating full degradation within 24 h and full conversion to monomer within 40 h at 90°C. This facile and scalable modification strategy allows for elevated operation temperatures in combination with the superior solvent capabilities of ionic liquids, providing a blueprint for enhancing the capability of any hydrolytic enzyme for plastic recycling."
Graphical abstract
No comments:
Post a Comment