Project Grant DESC0022525

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Project Grant for $331,415, awarded on September 1, 2023, aims to develop a novel biocatalytic process for the deconstruction of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics. The project will explore the use of natural enzymes, such as lipase, to catalyze the alcoholysis of PET in non-aqueous solvents. This approach seeks to improve the efficiency and conversion of plastic waste using...

This federal Project Grant award for $650,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program supports research at the University of California, Riverside (UC Riverside) to develop new methods for the environmental-friendly depolymerization and recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic waste. The research aims to discover and utilize plastic-degrading enzymes to break down PET polymers into their monomers of terephthalic acid...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant, awarded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), will fund research to develop a novel biocatalytic process for deconstructing and recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics. The $378,682 award to the University of Colorado aims to explore the use of natural enzymes, such as lipases, to break down PET in nonaqueous solvents rather than water, which can improve the efficiency and conversion of plastic waste. The research will...

This $250,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports a collaborative research effort to investigate the use of CO2-H2O mixtures as a tunable media to improve the chemical recycling of poly(ethylene) terephthalate (PET) plastic waste. The primary objectives are to (1) elucidate the impact of CO2 on PET polymer morphology, phase behavior, and reagent transport during acid-catalyzed hydrolysis, and (2) understand the...

This Cooperative Agreement award, valued at $1,000,000, was made by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) to Birch Biosciences LLC, a for-profit biotechnology company. The goal of the project is to develop high-performance engineered enzymes that can efficiently break down polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic into its chemical building blocks, terepthalic acid and ethylene glycol. This innovative enzymatic...

This $255,840 National Science Foundation SBIR Phase I Project Grant to Birch Biosciences LLC supports the development of enzymes to accelerate plastic recycling. The NSF Division of Industrial Innovation awarded this grant under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) to enable more efficient, profitable, and sustainable plastic recycling. Specifically, Birch Biosciences will apply synthetic biology and related technologies to identify, engineer, and optimize new enzymes and enzyme cocktails to...

Intermix Performance Materials, Inc. was awarded a $256,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to develop advanced compatibilization additives for mixed plastic recycling. The one-year project will optimize polyethylene-graft-isotactic polypropylene copolymer compatibilizers that can be introduced at low concentrations to produce durable and ductile polyethylene/isotactic polypropylene resin blends....

This $433,097 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports the development of a novel microorganism, Erwinia aphidicola LJJL01, capable of efficiently deconstructing mixed plastic waste, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyurethane (PU), and polycarbonate (PC), into their basic building blocks or monomers. The project aims to elucidate the organism's capabilities and engineering it to produce valuable chemicals from the...

The National Science Foundation's Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences awarded a $828,353 Project Grant to The Reed Institute, doing business as Reed College, to conduct research on the synergistic biodegradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic by microbial consortia. The goal of the project is to determine how a community of soil bacteria can degrade PET plastic waste, which has important environmental and commercial implications for creating a more circular PET economy....

The National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research awarded a $950,000 Project Grant to the Regents of the University of Minnesota under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to develop economically viable approaches for recycling the most prevalent commodity plastics. Specifically, the five-year award will fund research to synthesize triblock and multiblock copolymers that can localize at phase-separated domain interfaces when blended plastics are melt mixed,...