Researchers develop biological method for PET decomposition

Austrian researchers have developed a method of using fungi and produced enzymes to split Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) material into their initial state, enabling the recovery of all individual components, said the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB) Thursday in a press release. Enzyme is a special protein that acts as biological catalyst, for example, bacteria and fungi in the nature can break down long chain molecules. Researchers from the Technical University of Graz, the Technical University of Vienna and the Agricultural University of Vienna jointly found that efficient enzymes are capable to break and split PET into small fragments. With different methods, the researchers forced the fungi to overproduce their precious "split-tools" after they are modified and improved by genetic engineering. Through the new method developed by the ACIB, it is now possible to decompose the PET polymer to its initial monomers with high product quality and from this to produce new high-quality materials again. This circuit avoids waste and thus saves resources and is friendly to the environment, said Geog Guebitz, head of the Research Department on Enzymes and Polymers in the ACIB. He further explained that the ACIB has established a partnership with some industrial enterprises to carry out application experiments. From the current splitting time of 24 hours, the researchers expect to shorten the whole process to "a few hours," he added. PET is a common plastic material in the polyester family, widely used in the textile industry. PET film is mainly used in electrical insulation materials, which can be also used for production of film, X-ray films and computer taps, even to produce plastic bottle and other blow molding products.