About us

Project Background

Plastic pollution has become a clear threat to many environmental niches and ecosystems, due to rapidly increasing use of plastic products and leakage to the environment. Polyethylene (PE) is the most widely used and the largest-volume plastic (c.a. 30% of total plastics). Due to the absence of reactive groups, the plastics are often categorized as non-degradable; and are usually disposed of by incineration or landfill. About 12% of plastic wastes are recycled as goods with inferior quality and performance. The real catalytic route for upcycling of PE wastes into value-added products is less than 1%. It is clear that there is an urgent need to develop new routes for innovative upcycling of plastic wastes towards a paradigm shift in the plastic economy.

ACTPAC aims to develop a complete industry-viable path to convert PE firstly into high-value chemicals and finally into PE-like but fully biodegradable polyesters. As part of this, ACTPAC will create new catalysts and modes for deconstruction of PE into value-added chemicals. The value-added chemicals will be used for the synthesis of biodegradable polyesters. A zero-waste solution to the plastic waste management is thus created to keep plastics out of the environment, and reclaim their values.

The new properties and specific applications of the new polyester plastics produced from upcycling of PE waste will offer new business opportunities for SMEs by scalable, flexible and robust multi-product manufacturing processes for on-demand and small-volume output production.

Project Facts

Duration

01/2024 to 12/2027

Programme

Horizon Europe

HORIZON-CL6-2023-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-5

HORIZON Innovation Actions

Grant ID

10113528

Coordinator

Aarhus Universitet

Project Methodology

ACTPAC will develop new chemico-biological pathways and catalysts to degrade polyethylene (PE) into multiple catalogues of value-added chemicals, including alkanes, monomers and biodegradable, fully recyclable polyesters, that can be used for various industrial applications. ACTPAC’s new biodegradable, and fully recyclable polyesters will have similar or even better mechanical and composable performances compared to PE. By reclaiming new value out of PE plastic wastes and by mitigating plastic pollution, the project will have a significant, positive impact on the environment, biodiversity and the ecosystem’s balance and will contribute to the restoration of water, sea, and soil.

Project Impacts

Impact 01

MOVE towards clean, unpolluted surface water and groundwater bodies in the EU and beyond by contributing novel solutions to upcycle PE plastic waste, and to avoid pollution through biodegradable polymers.

Impact 02

STRENGTHEN circular bio-based systems, reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate climate change through the use of PE waste as feedstock for the production of materials that can replace current fossil-based systems.

Impact 03

SUBSTITUTE harmful chemicals for safer and more sustainable alternatives, notably by boosting innovative biotechnology and other sustainable technologies to create zero-pollution bio-based solutions.

Impact 04

REDUCE the environmental impact of food systems by increasing knowledge of the environmental and climate impacts stemming from the food systems and reducing pollution from plastic food packaging.

Deliverables

Project Structure

WP1 – DEVELOP catalyst systems for precise metathesis of model alkanes and PE

The main objective of this WP is to develop advanced active, and robust catalyst materials for highly selective and precise metathesis of polyethylene (PE). Insights in important structure-performance relationships guiding further catalyst materials design will be obtained via spectroscopy and microscopy.

WP2 – Development of catalyst bodies for precise metathesis of real-life PE

The objective of WP2 is to develop advanced active and robust catalyst bodies for highly selective and precise metathesis of real-life PE, into a range of medium-sized alkanes (C6-C18).

WP3 – PRODUCE diols and diacids via multi-enzyme/whole-cell catalytic production

The main objective of WP3 is to optimize and engineer Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes for efficient oxidation of short to medium chain length alkanes (C6-C12) into diols and diacids as monomers for PE-like polyester.

WP4 – PRODUCE diols and diacids via metabolic engineering of non-pathogenic microbes

The objective of this WP is to engineer microbial strains for efficient conversion of long-chain diacids and diols. Enzymatic systems will be transferred to non-pathogenic yeast strains to enable large-scale production. and a novel bacterial alkane-converting strain will be designed.

WP5 – REALIZE processes and further strain engineering for the production of long-chain length diols and diacids

The objective of this WP is to realize an economically feasible process and further strain engineering strategies for efficient conversion of long-chain diacids and diols.

WP6 – REALIZE processes and further strain engineering for the production of long-chain length diols and diacids

The main goal of this WP is the valorisation of mixture of diols and mixture of diacids through the synthesis of PE-like polyesters with tunable properties via a chemical catalysis.

find the most suitable one for the production of high molar mass polyesters in mild conditions.

WP7 – SNYTHESISE polyesters from monomer diols or diacids generated in WP3, 4 & 5

The main goal of this WP is the valorisation of diols and diacids generated in WP3, 4 & 5 through the synthesis of PE-like polyesters with tunable properties via an organo-metallic catalysis.

WP8 – PRODUCE polyesters through biocatalytic polymerization

The objective of this WP is to develop completely novel biobased enzymatic polycondensation routes and postcondensation procedures for production of polyolefin-like polyesters with improved barrier properties, biodegradability, and recyclability.

WP9 – CHARACTERISE and scale-up strategies for biocatalytically produced polyesters

The objective of this WP is to characterize the biocatalytically produced polyesters from WP8 in terms of chemical, thermal, and mechanical aspects to reveal structure-property relationships, to establish scale-up strategies of selected polymers and to assess their processability through mini-extrusion and injection molding prototyping.

WP10 – SCALE UP the production of alkanes and monomers

In this WP, the main objective is to demonstrate scaling up of monomers to be used for polyester production. This will include scale up of the different technologies to produce alkanes optimized in WP1 as well as scale-up of the technologies optimized in WP2 and WP3 to produce diacids/diols as monomers from alkanes for polyester production.

WP11 – SCALE UP the production of polyesters

The main objective of WP11 is to demonstrate scaling up of polymer (polyester) production. This WP will comprise different technologies and methods to produce target polyesters from various chain length diols/diacids that were produced in WP6a, with the aim of reaching TRL 6-7.

WP12 – CONDUCT environmental, social and economic studies

The objective of WP12 is to study the environmental suitability & impact of the target components by a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as well as a Social Acceptance and Social Awareness Assessment. Furthermore, the overall economic effects and benefits of the project solutions as well as the compliance with regulations will be assessed.

WP13 – MANAGE the project and disseminate, exploit and communicate the project output

The objective of WP13 is to manage and coordinate the ACTPAC project, to establish effective communication, dissemination and exploitation strategies, and to continuously perform communication and dissemination activities for the project.