[HN Gopher] Enzymatic degradation, recycling, and upcycling of m...
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       Enzymatic degradation, recycling, and upcycling of movable
       crosslinked polymers
        
       Author : PaulHoule
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2024-11-12 16:17 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.cell.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.cell.com)
        
       | phreeza wrote:
       | A biologist once told me "enzymatic degradation of PET is like
       | the fusion power of biotechnology".
        
         | pfdietz wrote:
         | As in always N years away, for a certain constant N?
        
           | phreeza wrote:
           | I think so, yes.
        
             | PaulHoule wrote:
             | All schemes for chemical plastic recycling are challenged
             | by the fact that plastic monomers and other chemicals you
             | might get from breaking down plastics (say in a disordered
             | process such as pyrolysis) are worth about 50 cents a
             | pound.
             | 
             | You cannot afford $50 of enzymes to make 50 cents of
             | product but it's likely to be like that. Chemical recycling
             | of polystyrene has been technically practical since the
             | 1970s but the cost of bringing all that bulky styrofoam to
             | one place defeats the economics.
             | 
             | Landfill disposal is a few cents per pound, any subsidy has
             | to be huge to move the needle.
        
       | gewenyu99 wrote:
       | A journal reaching top of Hackernews? What is this?
        
       | maxfurman wrote:
       | If I'm reading this right, they were able to build a certain kind
       | of polyurethane that is easier for enzymes to break down. Neat,
       | but won't do much to help recycle any plastic that has already
       | been manufactured, I'm afraid.
        
         | dr_kretyn wrote:
         | My understanding is that we have a lot of such "compostable"
         | materials. However, they don't have as good properties as
         | "plastic" and so they aren't visibly replacing them. Once we
         | manage to get similar in structure and costs then it's a good
         | start to replace.
        
       | krunck wrote:
       | If we could 1) create plastics from plant materials 2) recycle
       | them using the techniques in the paper above 3) build in a
       | limited lifetime so that plastics don't sit around forever and
       | 4)have usable plastics that don't need plasticizers that mess
       | with living organisms then plastic has a future. Otherwise we
       | need a different material.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-12 23:02 UTC)