The pace of bioeconomy invention and change continues at a frenetic pace. Here are the top innovations for the week of February 15th.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s Digest, new greener alternative to PET, olive pit bioplastic, Dupont and NIPI new insulation, biobased Mardi Gras beads \u2014 these and more, ready for you now at The Digest online.<\/p>\n
#1 Green alternative to PET could be even greener
\nIn the Netherlands, polymer chemists from the University of Groningen, led by Prof. Katja Loos, have described an enzyme-based polymerization method for furan-based polyester or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics.
\n\u201cFurans are mainly produced with enzymes. But for the polymerization, the same processes are used as have been used for PET production for the last 70 years,\u201d said Loos. Toxic metal-based catalysts and high temperatures that are needed for this process mean that it is not very environmentally friendly.<\/p>\n
That is why Loos and her colleagues looked for an alternative polymerization method, one that uses enzymes. \u201cWe eventually found a commercially available enzyme that would do this,\u201d said Loos. The polymers are made by combining furans with linear monomers, either aliphatic diols or diacidic ethyl esters. The enzyme Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) is a lipase that breaks down ester bonds, but the polymerization requires the creation of these bonds. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it is not, explains Loos: \u201cEnzymes catalyze equilibrium reactions, and we simply pushed the equilibrium towards the formation of ester bonds.\u201d
\nMore on the story, here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The pace of bioeconomy invention and change continues at a frenetic pace. Here are the top innovations for the week of February 15th. In today\u2019s Digest, new greener alternative to PET, olive pit bioplastic, Dupont and NIPI new insulation, biobased Mardi Gras beads \u2014 these and more, ready for you now at The Digest online. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[15436,14862],"supplier":[8390],"class_list":["post-60813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-greenalternatives","tag-innovations","supplier-biofuels-digest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60813"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=60813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}