Periodic Reporting for period 3 - FuturEnzyme (Technologies of the Future for Low-Cost Enzymes for Environment-Friendly Products)
Reporting period: 2024-06-01 to 2025-05-31
Our world faces major environmental threats including climate change. Enzymes as green catalysts can alleviate these problems by creating more environmentally friendly consumer goods, e.g. detergents, textiles and cosmetics. In 2024, global liquid laundry detergent volume reached approximately 20 million metric tons. The textile fiber production totaled around 120 million metric tons, with these fibers being processed into yarns and fabrics using ‘spinning additives’, up to 5%. The global hyaluronic acid market exceeded 2,156 metric tons, with about 45–50% used in Beauty & Personal Care. These products and their associated processes are highly resource-intensive, but enzyme innovations can offer substantial environmental benefits without compromising product performance. If industries could significantly reduce their environmental impact by replacing traditional chemical processes with enzymatic solutions, environmentally conscious consumers would be able to choose products made with fewer chemicals, less waste, and greater care for the environment, truly driving sustainable production and consumption. However, despite the enormous potential of enzyme technology, enzymes have been underutilized in the detergent, textile, and cosmetic sectors, with challenges in efficiency, scalability, and affordability hindering their adoption in real-world consumer product manufacturing. One of the biggest challenges is finding and producing the right enzyme for each task, process, and product. This is why, established in 2021, the FuturEnzyme project—comprising 8 universities/research institutions, 3 small and medium enterprises, 2 clusters, and 3 industries from 7 countries—is dedicated to developing enzyme-based innovations for the real-world production of consumer goods. More specifically, FuturEnzyme aimed to first deliver low-cost, eco-friendly enzymes. Instead of focusing on general enzyme discovery, the project prioritized delivering enzymes for existing market products, making them greener and more innovative based on their specific composition and use. With these enzymes, the project aimed to develop: 1) a prototype of a liquid laundry detergent using enzymes as key ingredients to break down stains at lower temperatures; 2) a gentle enzymatic process to produce a low molecular weight hyaluronic acid product for cosmetic formulations; and 3) a gentle enzymatic pre-treatment to remove spinning additives from synthetic fabrics. By embracing enzyme technology, FuturEnzyme contributes to building a world where industrial progress goes hand-in-hand with environmental responsibility, leading to cleaner products, more efficient processes, and a healthier planet for all. These innovations are directly aligned with the European Union’s (EU) safety and sustainability goals under the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework, and the Clean Industrial Deal.
As a starting point, FuturEnzyme consortium obtained real-life products from industrial partners to guide enzyme development based on actual formulation constraints, performance benchmarks, and application requirements. Through a precision enzyme discovery phase, which included advanced screening programs, bioinformatics, computational and AI tools, we undertook a truly global bioprospecting effort, which, based on the analysis of more than 21,000 microbial genomes and over 1 billion sequences from public repositories, enabled the discovery of 1,300 novel enzymes across 20 activity types, most likely working under conditions that closely mimic the product-specific requirements. Advanced expression systems allowed production and testing of over 85% of the candidate enzymes. Computational and AI tools, combined with protein and supramolecular engineering techniques, allowed to create 300+ enzyme variants, improving catalytic performance and stability. Ultimately, 56 lead enzymes were identified, 20 produced at 10 L scale, and two scaled to 1,000 L fermentation, forming the basis of a ready-to-use enzyme kit. These tools and enzymes supported the development of 18 prototypes, including enzymatic hyaluronic acid production for cosmetics, enzyme-integrated detergents, and textile pre-treatment processes, and prototypes beyond the project scope in agri-feed and animal farming sectors, demonstrating wide applicability. Sustainability gains include cleaning at 20 °C, reducing water and energy use in detergents; ~82% lower climate impact in enzymatic hyaluronic acid hydrolysis; and 50% water and 43.7% electricity savings in textile pre-treatment versus conventional methods. FuturEnzyme’s exploitation strategy resulted in five new products, one process, and one method with market potential. Four exploitation actions (patents, licenses, trade secrets) and four business plans were launched. Five companies are positioned for market entry, while eight implemented internal innovations. A system for Nagoya Protocol compliance was established. Dissemination reached over 159,700 people through 157 activities and consumer surveys (~2,500 participants), with media campaigns reaching over 39 million. FuturEnzyme generated 59 peer-reviewed publications and trained 67 students and early-career researchers (47.8% female). On policy, FuturEnzyme contributed to three EU policy briefs.
FuturEnzyme’s advances span the entire innovation pipeline—from bioprospecting and enzyme discovery to their application in consumer products—supported by enabling platforms and socio-economic strategies. In microbial and enzyme exploration, the project catalogued over 22,000 archaeal and bacterial genomes—many from extremophiles—collected from more than 950 sites worldwide. From these, over 1,300 novel enzymes were identified, many distantly related to known homologues, with potential for implementation across future initiatives. Breakthroughs in enzyme expression included rapid screening platforms, genetic toolkits for robust chassis strains, and IP-free plasmids for Pichia pastoris, enabling efficient production in near-operational settings. In enzyme design, FuturEnzyme developed novel computational tools for scalable sequence searches based on user-defined requirements, and implemented innovative techniques to repurpose and enhance enzyme activity, stability, and reuse. The project also advanced enzyme-based processes beyond the state of the art, achieving the first scalable prototype for the sustainable production of low molecular weight hyaluronic acid tailored for cosmetics, and the first experimental setup using a Foulard machine for enzymatic removal of chemical additives from fabrics. Analysis of consumer preferences and sustainability attitude analyses offered unprecedented insights into willingness to pay for eco-innovative alternatives to conventional products and attributes in purchasing decisions, valuable information for future product positioning and outreach. Results demonstrated significant socio-economic impact, with innovations validated in (or close to) operational environments, including innovative hyaluronic acid products production and commercialization of a 56-enzyme kit by Biosynth. Licensing agreements, patents, and business plans position FuturEnzyme as a key driver of sustainable industrial transformation and European competitiveness.