French company Carbios (Saint-Beauzire; www.carbios.fr) has published an article in the journal Nature on its enzymatic chemical recycling process that breaks down PET waste into its original components – see Plasteurope.com of 01.03.2019. Co-authored by scientists from Carbios and its academic partner, the Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI, Toulouse / France; www.toulouse-biotechnology-institute.fr), the article “An engineered PET depolymerase to break down and recycle plastic bottles”, was published on 8 April 2020.

The paper describes an optimised PET hydrolase that achieves a minimum of 90% PET depolymerisation into monomers, over 10 hours. The enzyme’s efficiency amounts to just under 17g of terephthalate per litre per hour – 200 g per 1 kg of PET suspension, with 3 mg of enzyme per 1 g of PET. According to the scientists, this enzyme outperforms all PET hydrolases reported so far.

Expressing his pride that the “highly respected” journal has validated the quality of the research, co-author and chief scientific officer at Carbios Alain Marty said, “The results obtained confirm the industrial and commercial potential of the company’s proprietary process, which will be tested in 2021 in our demonstration plant in the heart of the French chemical valley, near Lyon.”

Carbios announced on 15 April 2020 that it had selected TechnipFMC (London / UK; www.technipfmc.com) to assist in building the demonstration facility. The contractor will provide advisory, engineering, procurement and construction supervision services for the plant. Construction is scheduled to start later this year.