IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v15y2024i1d10.1038_s41467-024-49146-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bottlenecks in biobased approaches to plastic degradation

Author

Listed:
  • Amelia R. Bergeson

    (The University of Texas at Austin)

  • Ashli J. Silvera

    (The University of Texas at Austin)

  • Hal S. Alper

    (The University of Texas at Austin
    The University of Texas at Austin)

Abstract

Plastic waste is an environmental challenge, but also presents a biotechnological opportunity as a unique carbon substrate. With modern biotechnological tools, it is possible to enable both recycling and upcycling. To realize a plastics bioeconomy, significant intrinsic barriers must be overcome using a combination of enzyme, strain, and process engineering. This article highlights advances, challenges, and opportunities for a variety of common plastics.

Suggested Citation

  • Amelia R. Bergeson & Ashli J. Silvera & Hal S. Alper, 2024. "Bottlenecks in biobased approaches to plastic degradation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-49146-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49146-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49146-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-024-49146-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hongyuan Lu & Daniel J. Diaz & Natalie J. Czarnecki & Congzhi Zhu & Wantae Kim & Raghav Shroff & Daniel J. Acosta & Bradley R. Alexander & Hannah O. Cole & Yan Zhang & Nathaniel A. Lynd & Andrew D. El, 2022. "Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization," Nature, Nature, vol. 604(7907), pages 662-667, April.
    2. V. Tournier & C. M. Topham & A. Gilles & B. David & C. Folgoas & E. Moya-Leclair & E. Kamionka & M.-L. Desrousseaux & H. Texier & S. Gavalda & M. Cot & E. Guémard & M. Dalibey & J. Nomme & G. Cioci & , 2020. "An engineered PET depolymerase to break down and recycle plastic bottles," Nature, Nature, vol. 580(7802), pages 216-219, April.
    3. Christopher DelRe & Yufeng Jiang & Philjun Kang & Junpyo Kwon & Aaron Hall & Ivan Jayapurna & Zhiyuan Ruan & Le Ma & Kyle Zolkin & Tim Li & Corinne D. Scown & Robert O. Ritchie & Thomas P. Russell & T, 2021. "Near-complete depolymerization of polyesters with nano-dispersed enzymes," Nature, Nature, vol. 592(7855), pages 558-563, April.
    4. Zhe Zhang & Haoran Peng & Dongchen Yang & Guoqing Zhang & Jinlin Zhang & Feng Ju, 2022. "Polyvinyl chloride degradation by a bacterium isolated from the gut of insect larvae," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Yu Yang & Jian Min & Ting Xue & Pengcheng Jiang & Xin Liu & Rouming Peng & Jian-Wen Huang & Yingying Qu & Xian Li & Ning Ma & Fang-Chang Tsai & Longhai Dai & Qi Zhang & Yingle Liu & Chun-Chi Chen & Re, 2023. "Complete bio-degradation of poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) via engineered cutinases," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jingjing Cao & Huaxing Liang & Jie Yang & Zhiyang Zhu & Jin Deng & Xiaodong Li & Menachem Elimelech & Xinglin Lu, 2024. "Depolymerization mechanisms and closed-loop assessment in polyester waste recycling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. P. Konstantin Richter & Paula Blázquez-Sánchez & Ziyue Zhao & Felipe Engelberger & Christian Wiebeler & Georg Künze & Ronny Frank & Dana Krinke & Emanuele Frezzotti & Yuliia Lihanova & Patricia Falken, 2023. "Structure and function of the metagenomic plastic-degrading polyester hydrolase PHL7 bound to its product," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Yinglu Cui & Yanchun Chen & Jinyuan Sun & Tong Zhu & Hua Pang & Chunli Li & Wen-Chao Geng & Bian Wu, 2024. "Computational redesign of a hydrolase for nearly complete PET depolymerization at industrially relevant high-solids loading," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Teng Bao & Yuanchao Qian & Yongping Xin & James J. Collins & Ting Lu, 2023. "Engineering microbial division of labor for plastic upcycling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Hwaseok Hong & Dongwoo Ki & Hogyun Seo & Jiyoung Park & Jaewon Jang & Kyung-Jin Kim, 2023. "Discovery and rational engineering of PET hydrolase with both mesophilic and thermophilic PET hydrolase properties," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Zhuozhi Chen & Rongdi Duan & Yunjie Xiao & Yi Wei & Hanxiao Zhang & Xinzhao Sun & Shen Wang & Yingying Cheng & Xue Wang & Shanwei Tong & Yunxiao Yao & Cheng Zhu & Haitao Yang & Yanyan Wang & Zefang Wa, 2022. "Biodegradation of highly crystallized poly(ethylene terephthalate) through cell surface codisplay of bacterial PETase and hydrophobin," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Katarzyna Świderek & Susana Velasco-Lozano & Miquel À. Galmés & Ion Olazabal & Haritz Sardon & Fernando López-Gallego & Vicent Moliner, 2023. "Mechanistic studies of a lipase unveil effect of pH on hydrolysis products of small PET modules," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Anni Li & Yijie Sheng & Haiyang Cui & Minghui Wang & Luxuan Wu & Yibo Song & Rongrong Yang & Xiujuan Li & He Huang, 2023. "Discovery and mechanism-guided engineering of BHET hydrolases for improved PET recycling and upcycling," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    9. Huang, Jijiang & Veksha, Andrei & Chan, Wei Ping & Giannis, Apostolos & Lisak, Grzegorz, 2022. "Chemical recycling of plastic waste for sustainable material management: A prospective review on catalysts and processes," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    10. Gui Zhao & Jiayi Lin & Mengying Lu & Lina Li & Pengtao Xu & Xi Liu & Liwei Chen, 2024. "Potential cycling boosts the electrochemical conversion of polyethylene terephthalate-derived alcohol into valuable chemicals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Daniel J. Diaz & Chengyue Gong & Jeffrey Ouyang-Zhang & James M. Loy & Jordan Wells & David Yang & Andrew D. Ellington & Alexandros G. Dimakis & Adam R. Klivans, 2024. "Stability Oracle: a structure-based graph-transformer framework for identifying stabilizing mutations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Yuantao Peng & Jie Yang & Chenqiang Deng & Jin Deng & Li Shen & Yao Fu, 2023. "Acetolysis of waste polyethylene terephthalate for upcycling and life-cycle assessment study," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Iman Ibrahim & Ayat Gamal Ashour & Waleed Zeiada & Nisreen Salem & Mohamed Abdallah, 2024. "A Systematic Review on the Technical Performance and Sustainability of 3D Printing Filaments Using Recycled Plastic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-32, September.
    14. Yu Yang & Jian Min & Ting Xue & Pengcheng Jiang & Xin Liu & Rouming Peng & Jian-Wen Huang & Yingying Qu & Xian Li & Ning Ma & Fang-Chang Tsai & Longhai Dai & Qi Zhang & Yingle Liu & Chun-Chi Chen & Re, 2023. "Complete bio-degradation of poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) via engineered cutinases," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    15. Anton A. Stepnov & Esteban Lopez-Tavera & Ross Klauer & Clarissa L. Lincoln & Ravindra R. Chowreddy & Gregg T. Beckham & Vincent G. H. Eijsink & Kevin Solomon & Mark Blenner & Gustav Vaaje-Kolstad, 2024. "Revisiting the activity of two poly(vinyl chloride)- and polyethylene-degrading enzymes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Xinlei Wei & Xue Yang & Congcong Hu & Qiangzi Li & Qianqian Liu & Yue Wu & Leipeng Xie & Xiao Ning & Fei Li & Tao Cai & Zhiguang Zhu & Yi-Heng P. Job Zhang & Yanfei Zhang & Xuejun Chen & Chun You, 2024. "ATP-free in vitro biotransformation of starch-derived maltodextrin into poly-3-hydroxybutyrate via acetyl-CoA," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    17. Jun Qi & Yadong Du & Qi Yang & Na Jiang & Jiachun Li & Yi Ma & Yangjun Ma & Xin Zhao & Jieshan Qiu, 2023. "Energy-saving and product-oriented hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis enabled by electrochemistry pairing and product engineering," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    18. Elizabeth L. Bell & Gloria Rosetto & Morgan A. Ingraham & Kelsey J. Ramirez & Clarissa Lincoln & Ryan W. Clarke & Japheth E. Gado & Jacob L. Lilly & Katarzyna H. Kucharzyk & Erika Erickson & Gregg T. , 2024. "Natural diversity screening, assay development, and characterization of nylon-6 enzymatic depolymerization," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    19. Xun Zhang & Ximin Feng & Wenqi Guo & Chengjian Zhang & Xinghong Zhang, 2024. "Chemically recyclable polyvinyl chloride-like plastics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    20. Youying Mu & Chengzhuo Duan & Xin Li & Yongbo Wu, 2023. "A Monitoring Method for Corporate Environmental Performance Based on Data Fusion in China under the Double Carbon Target," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-16, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-49146-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.