Solid-State Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Mixed PET/Cotton Textiles**

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Waste polyester textiles are not recycled due to separation challenges and partial structural degradation during use and recycling. Chemical recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) textiles through depolymerization can provide a feedstock of recycled monomers to make “as-new” polymers. While enzymatic PET recycling is a more selective and more sustainable approach, methods in development, however, have thus far been limited to clean, high-quality PET feedstocks, and require an energy-intensive melt-amorphization step ahead of enzymatic treatment. Here, high-crystallinity PET in mixed PET/cotton textiles could be directly and selectively depolymerized to terephthalic acid (TPA) by using a commercial cutinase from Humicola insolens under moist-solid reaction conditions, affording up to 30±2 % yield of TPA. The process was readily combined with cotton depolymerization through simultaneous or sequential application of the cellulase enzymes CTec2®, providing up to 83±4 % yield of glucose without any negative influence on the TPA yield.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere202201613
Number of pages8
JournalChemSusChem
Volume16
Issue number1
Early online date27 Sept 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Keywords

  • biocatalysis
  • cotton
  • mechanoenzymatic hydrolysis
  • PET
  • textiles

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Chemistry
  • General Chemical Engineering
  • General Materials Science
  • General Energy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Solid-State Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Mixed PET/Cotton Textiles**'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this