Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EcoPlastiC (Eco conversion of lower grade PET and mixed recalcitrant PET plastic waste into high performing biopolymers)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2023-09-30
ECOPLASTIC is designed to provide a seamless route to resolving pervasive PET plastic pollution, converting it to Eco-plastic prototypes. Conversion of unrecyclable post use PET into new, high performance bioplastics embodies the regenerative zero waste approaches found in nature, where post use materials become the ingredients for new products and with unlimited cyclical use of materials. It proposes a technological paradigm shift in recycling from the current zero to single digit circuits of recycling loops to a regeneration process providing a significant scientific step forward towards true circularity. ECOPLASTIC converts lower grade PET and mixed recalcitrant PET plastic waste into high performing biopolymers, through the development of a suite of breakthrough modular and technologies adaptable to the waste input, to funnel waste PET plastics into Eco-products that enter a perpetually bio-cyclable loop. The new Ecoplastics and products will provide drop in alternatives for seamless adoption within industry and by consumers. We will demonstrate that the resulting processes are economically & environmentally sustainable for valorizing currently nonrecyclable materials such as multilayer packages and flexible films. The project will combine several approaches to optimise the material circularity:
I. Depolymerization process: Series of mechano-green, chemical and biocatalytic technologies to depolymerize them into their constituent monomers, using novel biological filtration for the preparation of highly fermentable monomer
and oligomer feedstock streams
II. Biopolymer production using microbiome processing to produce new biopolymers from monomer feedstocks which are then processed into bioproduct prototypes that are not harmful to the environment
III. Advanced processing will be used to advance the properties of recovered biopolymers and demonstration prototypes for applications including packaging will be produced.
I. Depolymerization process: Series of mechano-green, chemical and biocatalytic technologies to depolymerize them into their constituent monomers, using novel biological filtration for the preparation of highly fermentable monomer
and oligomer feedstock streams
II. Biopolymer production using microbiome processing to produce new biopolymers from monomer feedstocks which are then processed into bioproduct prototypes that are not harmful to the environment
III. Advanced processing will be used to advance the properties of recovered biopolymers and demonstration prototypes for applications including packaging will be produced.
During the Year 1, specifically designed green chemical and catalytic formulations were applied and optimized for the efficient recovery and precipitation of monomers such as terephthalic acid (TPA) and bis(2-Hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) in the case of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and will be expanded in accordance with feedback from subsequent steps in the EcoPlastiC process. Green chemical and biocatalytic processes were developed for efficient PET monomer yield, even from challenging mixed PET streams. The resulting TPA monomer met commercial specifications, reaching high yields exceeding 99%, setting a promising foundation for future studies on various PET waste feedstocks and residual reduction.
Moreover, Pseudomonas umsongensis GO1 demonstrated the ability to produce PHA from REX pre-treated samples. Specific strains, including Cupriavidus necator NRRL B-4383, Delftia tsuruhatensis, and Bacillus dretensis sp. DG40, showed promising results in generating PHA from TPA monomer. AVE's work identified enriched microbiomes within activated sludge for biodegrading REX-ed PET, highlighting potential anaerobic degradation and biogas production. These results advance the bioconversion of waste plastic monomers for PHA and other products development.
Based on previous results, optimal process parameters for technical-scale PHA production will be identified, and scale-up trials in 10 bioreactors and a 50 L reactor for aerobic PHA production will be conducted using monomer and multimer streams from mixed plastic waste. The challenge includes optimizing PHA recovery to achieve high efficiency, purity, and molecular properties in an environmentally friendly manner. Initial experiments on PHA recovery using deep eutectic solvents have begun and mealworms (T. molitor) are explored as a potential recovery system.
Moreover, Pseudomonas umsongensis GO1 demonstrated the ability to produce PHA from REX pre-treated samples. Specific strains, including Cupriavidus necator NRRL B-4383, Delftia tsuruhatensis, and Bacillus dretensis sp. DG40, showed promising results in generating PHA from TPA monomer. AVE's work identified enriched microbiomes within activated sludge for biodegrading REX-ed PET, highlighting potential anaerobic degradation and biogas production. These results advance the bioconversion of waste plastic monomers for PHA and other products development.
Based on previous results, optimal process parameters for technical-scale PHA production will be identified, and scale-up trials in 10 bioreactors and a 50 L reactor for aerobic PHA production will be conducted using monomer and multimer streams from mixed plastic waste. The challenge includes optimizing PHA recovery to achieve high efficiency, purity, and molecular properties in an environmentally friendly manner. Initial experiments on PHA recovery using deep eutectic solvents have begun and mealworms (T. molitor) are explored as a potential recovery system.
The further development and plans for commercialization of EcoPlastiC technologies which originated in the BioICEP project, accelerated here by the application of EIC Pathfinder funding will be transformative on the plastics industry drastically reducing the amount of virgin material produced from petroleum extraction, and positioning recycled PET from a wide range of grades and mixed streams which are currently not recyclable as a valuable, fully functional, reusable resource while enabling a transition from linear based value-chain to a circular based plastic-value chain. The completed EcoPlastiC system will also potentially revolutionize the way scientists approach the challenge of recycling and the depolymerization of PET mixed plastic waste. In addition to engineering, our project is relevant to several SPIRE sectors derived from chemicals and plastics which are characterized by a high dependence on fossil raw materials and energy in their production and processing technologies and are therefore under greater pressure to shift to circular models. Given the expansive breadth of opportunities within the PET plastics market, we will in particular will focus on the packaging, which on the one hand side represent a large share of plastic consumption while also containing a large number of multi-materials subtypes that are currently not recyclable/recycled. However, EcoPlastiC will also target companies in the textile, medical textile, automotive, EcoPlastiC industries that seek improvements in their use of recycled plastics, products and manufacturing processes.