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Team:TU Darmstadt/Project
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Overview
Since the discovery of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in the 1940s, it has become the most widely manufactured synthetic. In 2012, global annual production exceeded 100 million tons. Its popularity also creates the issue of PET waste. In Western countries today, less than 70% of PET produced are recovered by common means of recycling. Biological processes currently play no role, as its chemical properties make PET inert to biological degradation.
Recently it was discovered that the erosion of PET in a maritime environment ultimately creates nanoparticles with undesired characteristics, as these particles tend to accumulate toxic substances on their surface. This poses a growing threat to the environment and a serious health risk. Therefore, developing new methods for PET degradation became an urgent issue. We suggest the development of a bacterial recycling system, transforming PET waste into harmless, environmentally benign compounds which can be used in a wide range of applications.
How would such a bacterial recycling system look like and what features are required? First of all our genetical modified organism (GMO) would
The declared aim of our project is to generate a genetically modified micro-organism, which will help us break down polyethylene terephthalate (abbreviated PET, the main component of plastic bags, plastic bottles, etc..), so to make it available as a resource in microbial systems. Additionally during the course of this project the compound should be used to gather further products, such as shikimic acid, aromatic amino acids or co-enzymes. The project has both an environmental economics, and industrial perspective of interest, because PET is not biodegradable and it is as yet no way to recycle it completely. The latter leads to an increasing importance of PET waste as a component of pollution.
