Periodic Reporting for period 3 - UPLIFT (sUstainable PLastIcs for the Food and drink packaging indusTry)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2024-03-01 do 2025-02-28
Every year, 460 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide (2022), and that number is growing by the year. However, only 13% of all plastic is actually recycled, worldwide. In fact, while mechanical recycling is a valuable solution for relatively clean and pure streams, recycling facilities are currently struggling when dealing with challenging mixed plastic waste, multi-layers, blends, and additives. Consequently, plastics are too often landfilled, incinerated or spilled into the environment. According to new studies, plastic leaking into the ocean is contributing to the death for 1 million of sea birds and 100000 sea animals, yearly. Microplastics is accumulating along the food chain and has been reported already in human blood. Moreover, it is estimated that by 2050 the production and incineration of plastics could release up to 2.8 gigatons of CO2 per year (equivalent to the emissions from more than 600 coal plants). New reports also predict that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish biomass in the Sea and that plastic production will use up 20% of the global oil consumption.
Need for a different approach: The development of new biotechnological recycling solution could contribute to alleviating this problem, by converting mixed plastic waste into more easily recyclable and/or degradable polymers. This is where the UPLIFT team comes into play. UPLIFT is a H2020 4-year collaborative research project, involving 15 partners that will work together to develop a more sustainable plastic packaging value chain in the Food and Drink sector, by applying novel biochemical upcycling technology routes and eco-design strategies.
Need for a different approach: The development of new biotechnological recycling solution could contribute to alleviating this problem, by converting mixed plastic waste into more easily recyclable and/or degradable polymers. This is where the UPLIFT team comes into play. UPLIFT is a H2020 4-year collaborative research project, involving 15 partners that will work together to develop a more sustainable plastic packaging value chain in the Food and Drink sector, by applying novel biochemical upcycling technology routes and eco-design strategies.
UPLIFT’s research activity started with the development of a robust enzyme production platform (by screening numerous enzymes and microbial production hosts), followed by optimization of enzymatic depolymerization of plastics. Moreover, genetic engineering of microbial and fungal strains was targeting the upcycling of the plastic monomers into novel interesting compounds and/or bioplastics. Polyolefin degradation through enriched mixed consortia has also been investigated. Recently, a successful process for the bioupcycling of polyolefin pyrolysis wax into PHAs by defined microbial consortia was demonstrated and was optimised. Finally, production of bio-based building blocks and additives through fermentation technology was also investigated. After testing the depolymerization of commercial plastics, the focus shifted towards the more challenging post-consumer plastic waste, including PET bottles, trays and mixed plastic waste from our recycler partner. Some highly promising technologies have been identified and have the potential to reach a high impact and technological readiness in the coming years. UPLIFT has provided around 20 Kg packaging material (including for instance flexible films, rigid trays and bottles) using formulations containing bioupcycled eco-polymers developed by the project. Moreover, large scale enzymatic depolymerization of 25 Kg real plastic waste, as well as production of novel bio-based building blocks (in 1500L reactor) has been successfully concluded. Finally, analysis of the existing plastic value chain, the market and consumer awareness were also performed.
Overall, the consortium has published 29 peer-reviewed articles in open access international journals and filed for one patent. The complete list is available at our website, at the following link: https://upliftproject.eu/documents/#_documents(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie). Last but not least, the most promising UPLIFT technology will now be scaled-up further to TRL7, thanks to a newly funded Horizon Europe IA.
Overall, the consortium has published 29 peer-reviewed articles in open access international journals and filed for one patent. The complete list is available at our website, at the following link: https://upliftproject.eu/documents/#_documents(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie). Last but not least, the most promising UPLIFT technology will now be scaled-up further to TRL7, thanks to a newly funded Horizon Europe IA.
UPLIFT has developed and scaled-up 2-3 innovative bio-upcycling processes by integrating fossil-based plastic monomers (obtained by chemo-enzymatic depolymerization) with bio-based (fermented) building blocks, in order to obtain more renewable polymers. We call this concept a “Plastic Biorefinery”, since it can combine the valorization of organic waste streams (to obtain bio-based building blocks) with the valorization fossil-derived monomers from plastic waste. This resulted in the production of ≈20Kg of bioplastics that has improved properties for food and drink packaging and are easier to recycle.
In this way, UPLIFT will contribute to 1) increase recycling rates, and 2) the increase of bioplastics and renewable materials, thus reducing our dependency on fossil resources. The chemo-enzymatic depolymerisation of food and drink packaging has the advantage that it can be applied without the need of previous sorting of the mixed plastic waste as is the case in conventional mechanical recycling; moreover, eventual contamination from food residues which hinders their mechanical recycling does not represent a problem in UPLIFT (but rather a source for cell growth). Besides, cascade enzymatic depolymerisation reduces downstream processing complexity and cost, allowing for a stepwise release of specific monomers, instead of creating a complex soup of multiple monomers.
The UPLIFT approach has also the potential to decrease the production cost of expensive bioplastics that are currently not competitive on the market. In fact, UPLIFT preliminary results suggest that the plastic biorefinery, if coupled with increasing recycling rates, has a beneficial effect on the economic viability of upcycled plastics. Bioupcycling PET into PET or PTT would for instance allow to obtain recycled rPEF and rPTT at lower cost. This should provide effective motivation and driving force to increase recycling rates and suggests that the plastic biorefinery concept could play an important role in the transition to a more bio-based and circular plastics sector. In other words, increasing the recycling rates of eco-polymers obtained through the UPLIFT biorefinery approach can actually decrease production costs and thus convince producers and consumers to become part of a much-needed joint recycling effort. This is the opposite of what we observe in the fossil-based plastics, where recycled materials cost more than those obtained from virgin resources.
Moreover, UPLIFT has developed a one-pot enzyme production and plastic hydrolysis without the need for enzyme purification (simply using the enzyme-rich supernatant). Besides, UPLIFT has also developed novel eco-polymers and bio-based aromatic polyesters, that allow for easier recycling. Last but not least, UPLIFT also developed a Biotechnological approach that is able to efficiently recycle multilayer plastic packaging, such as drinking cartons.
Designing for recyclability: Eco-design of renewable and easy-recyclable ecopolymers will pave the way to a more sustainable plastic system, making packaging an available feedstock for the circular economy, also thanks to a biorefinery approach. By keeping plastic waste in the loop, UPLIFT will reduce plastic waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions associated with its production. Finally, UPLIFT has developed a proof of concept for a unique tandem chemo-enzymatic process that allows to bioupcycle real mixed plastic waste (rich in non-recyclable polyolefins) into ecopolymers and bioplastics. Overall, the project will support the transition to more efficient and circular plastic sector, complementing the current mechanical and chemical recycling.
In this way, UPLIFT will contribute to 1) increase recycling rates, and 2) the increase of bioplastics and renewable materials, thus reducing our dependency on fossil resources. The chemo-enzymatic depolymerisation of food and drink packaging has the advantage that it can be applied without the need of previous sorting of the mixed plastic waste as is the case in conventional mechanical recycling; moreover, eventual contamination from food residues which hinders their mechanical recycling does not represent a problem in UPLIFT (but rather a source for cell growth). Besides, cascade enzymatic depolymerisation reduces downstream processing complexity and cost, allowing for a stepwise release of specific monomers, instead of creating a complex soup of multiple monomers.
The UPLIFT approach has also the potential to decrease the production cost of expensive bioplastics that are currently not competitive on the market. In fact, UPLIFT preliminary results suggest that the plastic biorefinery, if coupled with increasing recycling rates, has a beneficial effect on the economic viability of upcycled plastics. Bioupcycling PET into PET or PTT would for instance allow to obtain recycled rPEF and rPTT at lower cost. This should provide effective motivation and driving force to increase recycling rates and suggests that the plastic biorefinery concept could play an important role in the transition to a more bio-based and circular plastics sector. In other words, increasing the recycling rates of eco-polymers obtained through the UPLIFT biorefinery approach can actually decrease production costs and thus convince producers and consumers to become part of a much-needed joint recycling effort. This is the opposite of what we observe in the fossil-based plastics, where recycled materials cost more than those obtained from virgin resources.
Moreover, UPLIFT has developed a one-pot enzyme production and plastic hydrolysis without the need for enzyme purification (simply using the enzyme-rich supernatant). Besides, UPLIFT has also developed novel eco-polymers and bio-based aromatic polyesters, that allow for easier recycling. Last but not least, UPLIFT also developed a Biotechnological approach that is able to efficiently recycle multilayer plastic packaging, such as drinking cartons.
Designing for recyclability: Eco-design of renewable and easy-recyclable ecopolymers will pave the way to a more sustainable plastic system, making packaging an available feedstock for the circular economy, also thanks to a biorefinery approach. By keeping plastic waste in the loop, UPLIFT will reduce plastic waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions associated with its production. Finally, UPLIFT has developed a proof of concept for a unique tandem chemo-enzymatic process that allows to bioupcycle real mixed plastic waste (rich in non-recyclable polyolefins) into ecopolymers and bioplastics. Overall, the project will support the transition to more efficient and circular plastic sector, complementing the current mechanical and chemical recycling.