Project description
Advancing sustainable bio-based polymers
The need for more sustainable polymer chemistry has sparked advances in bio-based materials and biocatalysts for polymer processing and recycling. However, current methods lack specificity, leading to poor-quality products and side reactions. The ERC-funded CIRCULARIZE project aims to address these challenges by developing chemo-enzymatic methods that process bio-based resources into advanced functional materials. The project focuses on enhancing biocatalyst efficiency, improving material properties, and creating novel smart materials with reactive surfaces. CIRCULARIZE strives to establish sustainable, high-selectivity processes that minimise damage to monomers and polymers, ultimately advancing bio-based hybrid polymers with temperature-switchable and enzyme-susceptible properties, paving the way for a circular biopolymer economy.
Objective
Recent advances driven by the society’s need of implementing a more sustainable polymer chemistry, led to the development of several bio-based materials and the booming of the interest of using biocatalysts for polymer processing and recycling.
The aim of CIRCULARIZE is to develop appropriate chemo-enzymatic methods to process bio-based resources to obtain advanced functional materials via the exploitation of highly selective reactions following the green chemistry principles. Further, the aim is, based on that knowledge, to improve the reaction efficiency of the biocatalysts and understand and control the surface and bulk properties of the produced materials in pursuit of novel smart materials and reactive surfaces.
Current processes for the utilization of bio-based monomers and resources are unspecific and lead to products in poor quality due to side reactions. Specific biocatalysts could achieve optimal selectivity together with minimal damage to the monomers and polymers and provide high-quality advanced materials.
When considering the multifunctional monomers deriving from biomass, the chemo catalytic techniques used by industry have some major shortcomings such as limited selectivity (leading to side reactions) and use of toxic catalysts and solvents. Using this knowledge, the CIRCULARIZE project will develop and apply techniques based on sustainable chemo-enzymatic processes, developing a series of fully bio-based hybrid polymers having smart characteristics (temperature-switchable, vitrimeric properties) while being able to finely tune their degradation via the insertion of enzyme-susceptible motifs. Methodologically, CIRCULARIZE strives to establish new approaches at the cross-sectorial biotechnology/polymer chemistry interface to extend the current knowledge on enzymes for polymer synthesis and processing and, in the long term, the development of a sustainable biopolymer chemistry able to build an endless selective carbon recovery loop.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysisbiocatalysis
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
- agricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
16126 Genova
Italy