Od PET lahví k dobrotám

The treatment of waste PET bottles has become a pressing global issue over the last few decades, and many scientific teams are currently working on solutions to it. There are many different approaches of how to solve this problem. The present article outlines the possibility to process terephthalic acid, which is the hydrolysis product of polyethylene terephthalate, into vanillin, a compound widely used in the food industry. The work of British scientists who have succeeded in using genetic modification to produce a strain of E. coli RARE_pVanX capable of processing polyethylene terephthalate hydrolysates to the desired vanillin is presented in a broader context.

pH-dependent formation of three porous In(III)-MOFs: framework diversity and selective gas adsorption

pH-dependent self-assembly and structural transformation have been observed in a series of porous In(III)-MOFs, H3O[In3(pta)4(OH)2]·10H2O (NXU-1), [In(pta)2]·C3H10N (NXU-2) and [In(pta)2]·C3H10N (NXU-3) (H2pta = 2-(4-pyridyl)-terephthalic acid). The structural diversities of NXU-1–3...

Evaluation of PET Degradation Using Artificial Microbial Consortia

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) biodegradation is regarded as an environmentally friendly degradation method. In this study, an artificial microbial consortium composed of Rhodococcus jostii, Pseudomonas putida and two metabolically engineered Bacillus subtilis was constructed to degrade PET. First, a two-species microbial consortium was constructed with two engineered B. subtilis that could secrete PET hydrolase (PETase) and monohydroxyethyl terephthalate hydrolase (MHETase), respectively; it could degrade 13.6% (weight loss) of the PET film within 7 days. A three-species microbial consortium was further obtained by adding R. jostii to reduce the inhibition caused by terephthalic acid (TPA), a breakdown product of PET. The weight of PET film was reduced by 31.2% within 3 days, achieving about 17.6% improvement compared with the two-species microbial consortium. Finally, P. putida was introduced to reduce the inhibition caused by ethylene glycol (EG), another breakdown product of PET, obtaining a four-species microbial consortium. With the four-species consortium, the weight loss of PET film reached 23.2% under ambient temperature. This study constructed and evaluated the artificial microbial consortia in PET degradation, which demonstrated the great potential of artificial microbial consortia in the utilization of complex substrates, providing new insights for biodegradation of complex polymers.

Engineered Stable 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Oxidase (HMFO) from 8BxHMFO Variant of Methylovorus sp. MP688 through B-Factor Analysis

What is known as Furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is an attractive compound since it has similar properties to terephthalic acid. Further, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural oxidase (HMFO) is an enzyme, which could convert HMF to FDCA directly. Most wild types of HMFO have low activity on the oxidation of HMF to FDCA. The variant of 8BxHFMO from Methylovorus sp. MP688 was the only reported enzyme that was able to perform FDCA production. However, the stabilization of 8BxHMFO is still not that satisfactory, and further improvement is necessary for the industrial application of the enzyme. In this work, stability-enhanced HMFO from 8BxHFMO was engineered through employing B-factor analysis. The mutation libraries were created based on the NNK degeneracy of residues with the top ten highest B-factor value, and two of the effective mutants were screened out through the high throughput selection with the horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-Tyr assay. The mutants Q319K and N44G show a significantly increased yield of FDCA in the reaction temperature range of 30 to 40 °C. The mutant Q319K shows the best performance at 35 °C with a FDCA yield of 98% (the original 8BxHMFO was only 85%), and a half-life exceeding 72 h. Moreover, molecular dynamic simulation indicates that more hydrogen bonds are formed in the mutants, which improves the stability of the protein structure. The method could enhance the design of more stable biocatalysts; and provides potential for the further optimization and utilization of HMFO in biotechnological processes.

Microbial fermentation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic waste for the production of chemicals and electricity

Ideonella sakaiensis (I. sakaiensis) can grow on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as the sole carbon and energy source. Previous work has shown that conversion of the hydrolysis products terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG) under aerobic conditions released carbon dioxide and water while yielding adenosine triphosphate (ATP) through oxidative phosphorylation. This study demonstrates that under anaerobic conditions I. sakaiensis ferments PET to the feedstock chemicals acetate and ethanol while co-producing ATP by substrate-level phosphorylation. In addition to PET, maltose, EG, and ethanol can also serve as fermenting substrates. Co-culturing of I. sakaiensis with electrogenic Geobacter sulfurreducens produced electricity from PET or EG. This newly identified plastic fermentation process by I. sakaiensis provides a novel biosynthetic route to produce high-value chemicals and electricity from plastic waste streams.

Communication—Fe-MOF Exhibits Higher Oxygen Evolution Ability by Electronic Modulation of Sodium Hypochlorite

Development of robust alkaline oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysts is crucial for the efficiency of water splitting. Herein, Fe-MOF nanocones array on nickel foam are synthesized by introducing sodium hypochlorite, leading to Cl substitution of terephthalic acid in Fe-MOFs (Fe-MOF-Cl/NF). Experimental results show that Fe-MOF-Cl/NF exhibits enhanced OER activity over Fe-MOF/NF, lowering η50 from 292.4 to 222.7 mV. In combination with density function theory calculations, the improved OER performance is attributed to engineering electronic structure of Fe sites which accelerate the third step from *O to *OOH, and promote OER kinetics. Additionally, Fe-MOF-Cl/NF can retain catalytic activity for 100 h.