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Title Highly Selective Enzymatic Recovery of Building Blocks from Wool-Cotton-Polyester Textile Waste Blends
ID_Doc 28022
Authors Quartinello, F; Vecchiato, S; Weinberger, S; Kremenser, K; Skopek, L; Pellis, A; Guebitz, GM
Title Highly Selective Enzymatic Recovery of Building Blocks from Wool-Cotton-Polyester Textile Waste Blends
Year 2018
Published Polymers, 10.0, 10
DOI 10.3390/polym10101107
Abstract In Europe, most of the discarded and un-wearable textiles are incinerated or landfilled. In this study, we present an enzyme-based strategy for the recovery of valuable building blocks from mixed textile waste and blends as a circular economy concept. Therefore, model and real textile waste were sequentially incubated with (1) protease for the extraction of amino acids from wool components (95% efficiency) and (2) cellulases for the recovery of glucose from cotton and rayon constituents (85% efficiency). The purity of the remaining poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) unaltered by the enzymatic treatments was assessed via Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy. Amino acids recovered from wool were characterized via elementary and molecular size analysis, while the glucose resulting from the cotton hydrolysis was successfully converted into ethanol by fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This work demonstrated that the step-wise application of enzymes can be used for the recovery of pure building blocks (glucose) and their further reuse in fermentative processes.
Author Keywords textile recycling; sustainable processes; protease; amino acids; cellulases; bioethanol; poly(ethylene terephthalate); circular economy
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED)
EID WOS:000448662400062
WoS Category Polymer Science
Research Area Polymer Science
PDF https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/10/10/1107/pdf?version=1538893117
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