SUSTAINABILITY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
3D structure of the TPADO enzyme .
traditional fossil fuel routes and shown that new plastics based on enzyme recycling can be cost competitive with traditional fossil fuel-derived PET . They can also cut energy used in plastics manufacturing by up to 80 per cent and reduce related greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 per cent .
A further techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment revealed strong economic , social and environmental benefits across the whole supply chain when using enzymes . Focusing on the processing of a fraction of the three million tonnes of PET consumed annually in the US , the researchers found that using enzymes to digest the plastic waste reduced total supply chain energy use by 69 to 83 per cent and related greenhouse gas emissions by 17 to 43 per cent .
If the enzyme system is introduced in the US alone , the model shows a reduction in environmental impact of up to 95 per cent relative to using the fossil fuel building blocks of PET . This would have associated lower emissions reducing ecotoxicity , acidification and ozone depletion .
Many industries have a keen interest in enzyme-based recycling and Portsmouth ’ s research is showing that adopting these technologies at scale has the potential to achieve significant environmental and social benefits in a cost-competitive manner .
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