Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Genova, Via Dodecaneso 31, 16146 Genova, Italy.
ACIB - Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology, Krenngasse 37, 8010 Graz, Austria; Department of Agrobiotechnology, IFA-Tulln, Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria.
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2023 Jun;81:102938. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2023.102938. Epub 2023 Apr 12.
The urge to discover and develop new technologies for closing the plastic carbon cycle is motivating industries, governments, and academia to work closely together to find suitable solutions in a timely manner. In this review article, a combination of uprising breakthrough technologies is presented highlighting their potential and complementarity to be integrated one with the other, therefore providing a potential solution to efficiently solve the plastics problem. First, modern approaches for bio-exploration and engineering of polymer-active enzymes are presented to degrade polymers into valuable building blocks. Special focus is placed on the recovery of components from multilayered materials since these complex materials can only be recycled insufficiently or not at all by existing technologies. Then, the potential of microbes and enzymes for resynthesis of polymers and reuse of building blocks is summarized and discussed. Finally, examples for improvement of the bio-based content and enzymatic degradability and future perspectives are given.
探索和开发新技术以封闭塑料碳循环的强烈愿望促使工业界、政府和学术界密切合作，及时找到合适的解决方案。在这篇综述文章中，介绍了一系列新兴的突破性技术，强调了它们的潜力和互补性，以便相互集成，从而为有效解决塑料问题提供潜在的解决方案。首先，介绍了用于生物探索和聚合物活性酶工程的现代方法，将聚合物降解为有价值的构建块。特别关注从多层材料中回收成分，因为这些复杂的材料仅靠现有技术无法充分回收，甚至根本无法回收。然后，总结和讨论了微生物和酶在聚合物再合成和构建块再利用方面的潜力。最后，给出了提高生物基含量和酶可降解性的实例以及未来展望。
