TY - JOUR
T1 - Techno-economic, life cycle, and socio-economic impact analysis of enzymatic recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate)
AU - Singh, Avantika
AU - Rorrer, Nicholas A.
AU - Nicholson, Scott
AU - Erickson, Erika
AU - DesVeaux, Jason
AU - Avelino, Andre
AU - Lamers, Patrick
AU - Bhatt, Arpit
AU - Zhang, Yimin
AU - Avery, Gregg
AU - Tao, Ling
AU - Pickford, Andrew
AU - Carpenter, Alberta
AU - McGeehan, John
AU - Beckham, Gregg T.
PY - 2021/9/15
Y1 - 2021/9/15
N2 - Esterases have emerged as important biocatalysts for enzyme-based polyester recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) to terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG). Here, we present process modeling, techno-economic, life cycle, and socio-economic impact analyses for an enzymatic PET depolymerization-based recycling process, which we compare to virgin TPA manufacturing. We predict that enzymatically recycled TPA (rTPA) can be cost-competitive and highlight key areas to achieve this. In addition to favorable long-term socio-economic benefits, rTPA can reduce total supply-chain energy use by 69-83% and greenhouse gas emissions by 17-43% per kg of TPA. An economy-wide assessment for the US estimates that the TPA recycling process can reduce environmental impacts by up to 95%, while generating up to 45% more socio-economic benefits, also relative to virgin TPA production. Sensitivity analyses highlight impactful research opportunities to pursue towards realizing biological PET recycling and upcycling.
AB - Esterases have emerged as important biocatalysts for enzyme-based polyester recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) to terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG). Here, we present process modeling, techno-economic, life cycle, and socio-economic impact analyses for an enzymatic PET depolymerization-based recycling process, which we compare to virgin TPA manufacturing. We predict that enzymatically recycled TPA (rTPA) can be cost-competitive and highlight key areas to achieve this. In addition to favorable long-term socio-economic benefits, rTPA can reduce total supply-chain energy use by 69-83% and greenhouse gas emissions by 17-43% per kg of TPA. An economy-wide assessment for the US estimates that the TPA recycling process can reduce environmental impacts by up to 95%, while generating up to 45% more socio-economic benefits, also relative to virgin TPA production. Sensitivity analyses highlight impactful research opportunities to pursue towards realizing biological PET recycling and upcycling.
KW - PETase
KW - techno-economic analysis
KW - life cycle assessment
KW - enzymatic PET depolymerization
KW - plastics recycling
UR - http://Techno-economic, life-cycle, and socioeconomic impact analysis of enzymatic recycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate)
U2 - 10.1016/j.joule.2021.06.015
DO - 10.1016/j.joule.2021.06.015
M3 - Article
SN - 2542-4351
VL - 5
SP - 1
EP - 25
JO - Joule
JF - Joule
ER -
