%0 Journal Article
%A Tiso, Till
%A Narancic, Tanja
%A Wei, Ren
%A Pollet, Eric
%A Beagan, Niall
%A Schröder, Katja
%A Honak, Annett
%A Jiang, Mengying
%A Kenny, Shane T.
%A Wierckx, Nick
%A Perrin, Rémi
%A Avérous, Luc
%A Zimmermann, Wolfgang
%A O'Connor, Kevin
%A Blank, Lars M.
%T Towards bio-upcycling of polyethylene terephthalate
%J Metabolic engineering
%V 66
%@ 1096-7176
%C Orlando, Fla.
%I Academic Press
%M FZJ-2021-02052
%P 167 - 178
%D 2021
%Z Biotechnologie 1
%X Over 359 million tons of plastics were produced worldwide in 2018, with significant growth expected in the near future, resulting in the global challenge of end-of-life management. The recent identification of enzymes that degrade plastics previously considered non-biodegradable opens up opportunities to steer the plastic recycling industry into the realm of biotechnology.Here, the sequential conversion of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into two types of bioplastics is presented: a medium chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and a novel bio-based poly(amide urethane) (bio-PU). PET films are hydrolyzed by a thermostable polyester hydrolase yielding highly pure terephthalate and ethylene glycol. The obtained hydrolysate is used directly as a feedstock for a terephthalate-degrading Pseudomonas umsongensis GO16, also evolved to efficiently metabolize ethylene glycol, to produce PHA. The strain is further modified to secrete hydroxyalkanoyloxy-alkanoates (HAAs), which are used as monomers for the chemo-catalytic synthesis of bio-PU. In short, a novel value-chain for PET upcycling is shown that circumvents the costly purification of PET monomers, adding technological flexibility to the global challenge of end-of-life management of plastics.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ 33865980
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000658808700005
%R 10.1016/j.ymben.2021.03.011
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/892391