90% PET plastic decomposed in 8 hours...Developing the World's Best Performance Biocatalyst

[Anchor]
Korean researchers have developed the world's best performance bio-catalyst, or enzyme, that breaks down PET plastic used in PET bottles and takeout cups.

The developed enzyme selectively decomposes only PET, and the reactants are pure, and if recycled, the quality is excellent, so it is expected to be of great industrial utility.

This is reporter Lee Sung-kyu.

[Reporter]
It is a plastic plastic bottle that is commonly used in everyday life.

The PET bottle was put into the reactor and the reactor was operated.

Then the plastic bottle slowly begins to decompose.

The key to decomposing PET bottles lies in biocatalysts, or enzymes.

PET bottles are made of PET plastic, which is one of the few plastics that biocatalytic enzymes can break down.

The researchers developed an algorithm to predict the degradation ability of tens of thousands of PET-degrading enzymes present in nature to find highly efficient enzymes that decompose PET plastics.

Through this, the most decomposition-efficient enzyme 'KubuP' was selected.

Since then, some of the amino acids of the enzyme Kubu P have been changed and improved to Kubu M12, which has increased thermal stability and decomposition capacity for industrial mass production.

[Kim Kyung-jin / Professor of Biotechnology at Kyungpook National University] We will investigate the three-dimensional structure of the Kubu P protein enzyme selected first. Looking at the three-dimensional structure, we predict which amino acids we want to replace in order to increase activity or thermal stability.]

Finally developed, Kubu M12 decomposed 1kg of PET in 1 hour and more than 90% in 8 hours with only 0.58g of enzyme, proving the world's best performance.

The researchers explained that the developed enzyme selectively reacts only to PET plastic, so the product is pure and the quality of the material is excellent when recycled.

The researchers are also one step closer to commercialization by recently starting a startup and conducting joint research with CJ CheilJedang.

I'm Lee Sung Kyu of YTN Science.


Video coverage: Kim Young-hwan