Engineering enzymes for the deconstruction of waste polyester textiles

如果我们要将当前的线性纺织经济转变为循环经济，减少对化石原料的依赖，就需要回收废旧聚酯的新方法。天然聚合物在所有生命领域都很常见，对于每一种天然聚合物，都存在一种天然酶，可以将其分解为组成其的构建单元。这些分解酶给生命带来了循环;构建模块被重复使用，没有任何浪费。该项目将开发基于酶的技术，将废弃聚酯纺织品分解为化学构件，随后在循环生物经济中再利用。我们将开发强大的酶，可以解构废旧纺织品中最常用的聚酯聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET），并耐受这种原料带来的挑战，即其韧性以及染料和添加剂的存在。该研究将确定使用酶将废弃纺织品中的PET解构为简单的构建块汤的可行性，以转换回新的聚酯，从而循环现有的线性经济，并减少从石油和天然气生产原始PET的需求。这个学生奖学金机会特别适合具有生物化学，生物技术，生物物理学或有机化学背景的人。将提供所有必要的培训，包括酶工程，微生物酶表达，发酵，色谱，生物量热法，化学分析和基于生物反应器的PET解聚。该项目将由朴茨茅斯大学酶创新中心（CEI）主任Andy Pickford教授和肯特大学的Tobias von der Haar教授监督。CEI结合了最先进的设施和世界领先的专业知识，不仅推动了科学突破，而且还提供了将新知识转化为现实世界解决方案的能力。有关我们的科学的更多信息，请访问CEI网页：www.example.com

Novel means of recycling end-of-life polyesters are required if we are to convert the current, linear textile economy into a circular one with a reduced reliance on fossil-based feedstocks.Natural polymers are commonplace in all kingdoms of life, and for every natural polymer, there exists a natural enzyme that can deconstruct it back into its constituent building blocks. These deconstructing enzymes give circularity to life; the building blocks are reused with nothing going to waste. This project will develop enzyme-based technology for the breakdown of waste polyester textiles into their chemical building blocks for subsequent reuse in a circular bioeconomy. We will develop robust enzymes that can deconstruct the most commonly-used polyester polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in waste textiles, tolerating the challenges that this feedstock poses, namely its toughness and the presence of dyes and additives. The research will establish the feasibility of using enzymes to deconstruct the PET in waste textiles into a soup of simple building blocks for conversion back into new polyesters, thus circularising the existing linear economy, and reducing the need to produce virgin PET from oil and gas.This studentship opportunity would particularly suit someone with a background in biochemistry, biotechnology, biophysics or organic chemistry. All necessary training will be provided, including in enzyme engineering, microbial enzyme expression, fermentation, chromatography, biocalorimetry, chemical analysis and bioreactor-based PET depolymerisation. The project will be supervised by Prof Andy Pickford, Director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI) at the University of Portsmouth, and Prof Tobias von der Haar, University of Kent. The CEI combines state-of-the-art facilities and world-leading expertise to not only drive forward scientific breakthroughs, but also provide the capacity and capability for translating that new knowledge into real-world solutions. For more information about our science, please visit the CEI webpage at: www.port.ac.uk/cei