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A “Super-Enzyme” that can Digest Plastic Six Times Faster, Discovered by Researchers




In 2018, scientists have re-engineered an enzyme they call the PETase which can digest some of the most commonly polluting plastics that are made of polyethylene terephthalate or PET. 

PET is used to make single-use drinks bottles, clothing, and even carpets. It takes hundreds of years for PET to break down, however, with PETase, it can be shortened to days.


The research about this was led by teams at the University of Portsmouth and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with their findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Just a few years after this study has been published, another research about the use of enzyme on digesting plastic has been made. In the latest study, the same team of researchers has combined PETase with a second enzyme to generate much bigger improvements.

Super-Enzyme that can Digesting Plastic Even Faster

Since PETase alone is not yet fast enough to make the process commercially viable to handle the tons of discarded PET bottles, combining it with a second enzyme means another step towards finding a solution to plastic waste.

According to a press release published by the University of Portsmouth on  September 28, 2020, the scientists who re-engineered the plastic-eating enzyme PETase have now created an enzyme “cocktail” which can digest plastic up to six times faster.

The team has combined PETase and a second enzyme called MHETase. The university stated that mixing the two enzymes doubled the speed of PET breakdown and engineering a connection between the two in order to create a “super-enzyme” has increased this activity by a further three times.

“It took a great deal of work on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was worth the effort – we were delighted to see that our new chimeric enzyme is up to three times faster than the naturally evolved separate enzymes, opening new avenues for further improvements.”

– Professor John McGeehan, Director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation, an author of the study

Both PETase and the new combined MHETase-PETase work by digesting PET plastic and returning it to its original building blocks, allowing plastics to be made and reused endlessly. Thus, reducing people’s reliance on fossil resources.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on September 28, 2020. It is called the “Characterization and engineering of a two-enzyme system for plastics depolymerization.”

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Source: University of Portsmouth|April 16, 2018, University of Portsmouth| September 28, 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|Journal

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