Approaches of enzyme-based biotechnology to achieve textiles recovery and reuse for circularity

基于酶的生物技术实现纺织品回收和循环再利用的方法

• 批准号: BB/X011623/1
• 负责人: Jinsong Shen
• 金额: $ 38.63万
• 依托单位: De Montfort University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FX011623%2F1
• 关键词: Approaches; enzyme; based; biotechnology; achieve

Global consumption of textiles continues to increase year on year. This rapid growth of textile consumption demands greater use of resources and enormous amounts of energy and water for producing virgin materials and processing into textiles. This results in the depletion of natural non-renewable resources and contributes significantly to carbon emissions, which is unsustainable. Currently, only a small amount of textiles are reused or recycled, while millions of tonnes of textiles, including a large proportion of blended textiles (made from more than one different fibre type) end up in landfills or are incinerated. The textile industry is currently working towards transitioning to a circular economy that moves away from the current linear system of take-make-use-dispose. Although, prolonged use and reuse is considered more beneficial than upcycling and recycling, the latter could help reduce the industries negative environmental impact as it could reduce virgin textile fibre production and avoid intense processing within the supply chain. Research is urgently needed to develop technologies for upcycling, recycling, and reuse of waste textiles to achieve textile circularity.The proposed project is designed to challenge current problems related to the recovery, recycling, and reuse of textiles, to keep valuable resources in-use as long as possible. Advances in biotechnology offers opportunities for the exploration of enzyme-based processing to recover and recycle textile fibres from blended fabrics. The aim of the project is to develop enzyme-based biotechnologies to recover valuable resources from wool blended fabrics, specifically wool/synthetic and wool/bast fibre blends, for recycling and reuse to support textile sectors transition towards circularity. The project will focus on utilising biotechnology to re-manufacture post-consumer and post-industrial textile waste for new applications by using the enzymes protease and transglutaminase to create new surface pattern on fabrics with textural effects and or repair damaged wool fibres for fabric reuse, respectively. Novel enzyme-based biotechnologies will also be developed to separate bast (flax, hemp and nettle), synthetic (nylon, polyester), and wool fibres, from blended fabrics for upcycling bast fibres into cottonised fibres, and recycling synthetic fibres back into fibres. Extracted valuable wool protein polypeptides will be utilised to develop novel added value machine washable wool. This multidisciplinary research project between De Montfort University and Loughborough University brings together three UK based industry partners with a global reach: a contract upholstery fabric manufacturer, a wool cloth manufacturer, and a wool textile manufacturing and innovation company to ensure project outputs are of direct relevance to various sectors of the industry and enable alignment to sustainable circular development to deliver economic and environmental impact when scaled up, widely contributing to realising the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

全球纺织品消费量逐年增加。纺织品消费的快速增长需要更多地使用资源和大量的能源和水来生产原始材料和加工成纺织品。这导致不可再生的自然资源枯竭，并大大增加了不可持续的碳排放。目前，只有少量的纺织品被再利用或回收，而数百万吨纺织品，包括很大比例的混纺纺织品（由一种以上不同的纤维类型制成）最终被填埋或焚烧。纺织行业目前正在努力向循环经济过渡，摆脱目前的“取-用-用-弃”的线性系统。虽然长期使用和再利用被认为比升级回收和再循环更有益，但后者可以帮助减少该行业对环境的负面影响，因为它可以减少原始纺织纤维的生产，并避免供应链中的密集加工。为了实现纺织品的循环利用，迫切需要研究开发废旧纺织品的升级、回收和再利用技术。拟议的项目旨在挑战当前与纺织品回收、回收和再利用相关的问题，尽可能长时间地使用宝贵的资源。生物技术的进步为探索酶基加工提供了机会，以从混纺织物中回收和再循环纺织纤维。该项目的目的是开发基于酶的生物技术，从羊毛混纺织物中回收宝贵的资源，特别是羊毛/合成纤维和羊毛/韧皮纤维混纺织物，用于回收和再利用，以支持纺织部门向循环过渡。该项目将专注于利用生物技术再制造消费后和工业后的纺织废料，分别使用蛋白酶和转氨酶在织物上创造具有纹理效果的新表面图案和/或修复受损的羊毛纤维以供织物再利用。还将开发新的酶基生物技术，从混纺织物中分离出韧皮纤维（亚麻、大麻和荨麻）、合成纤维（尼龙、聚酯）和羊毛纤维，将韧皮纤维升级回收为棉化纤维，并将合成纤维回收为纤维。提取的有价值的羊毛蛋白多肽将用于开发新的附加值可机洗羊毛。德蒙福特大学和拉夫堡大学之间的这个多学科研究项目汇集了三个英国的行业合作伙伴，具有全球影响力：一家室内装饰织物制造商，一家羊毛织物制造商，以及一家毛纺制造和创新公司，以确保项目产出与行业的各个部门直接相关，并与可持续循环发展保持一致，以实现经济和环境效益。扩大规模后的影响，为实现联合国可持续发展目标（SDG）做出广泛贡献。