Chemical and Enzymatic Depolymerization and Bioconversion of PET for One-pot Upcycling
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초록
내용
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) has been widely used due to its unique physical properties. However, PET has been global environmental concerns due to its low degradability and recycling rate. In this study, for the effective resource recovery from waste PET, we developed an integrated process for depolymerizing PET and converting PET monomers to high-value products in a one-pot process. The key of our approach is the use of the biocompatible catalyst betaine in a glycolysis process that enables whole PET glycolysis slurry as a substrate to be directly applied to further bioprocesses. Through the glycolysis of PET with betaine and the optimized enzymatic hydrolytic process for the PET glycolysis slurry, PET was depolymerized to terephthalate (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG) at high titers and high yields. This process was further applied to the bioconversion of TPA and EG present in the PET hydrolysate to protocatechuic acid (PCA) and other aromatic precursors and glycolic acid (GLA), respectively.