SUPERVISOR: Georg GÜBITZ

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Chloe ALLO

Over the past two decades, global plastic production has doubled to nearly 400 million metric tons per year and is projected to further triple by 2060. This high production coupled to low recycling rates not only result in long-lasting environmental pollution, but also in the need to generate new plastic material from petroleum-derived chemicals, directly tying into greenhouse gas emissions. The valorization of plastic waste via cost-effective technologies is therefore at the center of global environmental challenges. Within this context, this thesis aims to harness the depolymerization capacity and high specificity of certain enzymes to recover pure plastic polymers and monomers from mixed waste streams, which can then be used as building blocks to produce recycled plastics. A focus is first given to the characterization of novel enzymes based on their homology with known PET degraders to scout for higher efficiency or specificity, as well as to expand the catalogue of enzymes which can be utilized to fight plastic pollution. The optimization of biocatalytic degradation is sought by investigating optimal environmental conditions and potentially improving enzymatic properties through enzyme engineering.