https://english.news.cn/20250712/68b1e53dde714006b43b0d5d695996bf/c.html

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscatal.5c01062

Researchers from the CAS Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology have developed a new variant of a polyurethane (PU) plastic-degrading enzyme, achieving a more than tenfold increase in PU plastic degradation efficiency. Based on cooperative research with Bornscheuer’s group at Greifswald University in Germany about the structure-function relationship of PU plastic-degrading enzymes, the researchers identified a new PU depolymerase from nature and further engineered its structure to create a variant with significantly enhanced performance. This  enzyme degraded PU plastic nearly 11 times faster than the wild type, greatly improving the PU plastic waste recycling potential.