EnzyLoop
Enzyme-led recycling for difficult plastics
Assessing a practical route to recover useful chemistry under milder processing conditions.
Turning difficult plastic waste back into useful chemistry
EnzyLoop is a two-month feasibility study examining whether selected enzymes could depolymerise difficult plastic streams under milder conditions than conventional chemical recycling.The study focuses on the evidence needed to judge whether useful monomers could be recovered for future circular manufacturing, while clearly separating published potential from results that still require experimental validation.
Project overview
Lead: Bellacet Ltd
Specialist support: Safe Technologia Ltd
Duration: 2 months
Type: Feasibility study
Location: United Kingdom
Funded by Innovate UK
The recycling gap
Mechanical recycling can reduce polymer quality over repeated cycles and often struggles with contaminated, coloured or multi-layer material. Chemical recycling can demand high temperatures, aggressive solvents and significant energy.EnzyLoop explores a biological alternative based on enzyme-driven depolymerisation. PET is the primary focus because published evidence is more mature, while polyamides and polyurethanes remain exploratory modelling areas.
How the feasibility approach works
Candidate review: compare relevant hydrolase and esterase enzymes and the polymer bonds they target.Reaction exploration: examine temperature, pH, preparation and reaction-time conditions reported in published work.Data assessment: analyse open-source and synthetic datasets and independently cross-check reported yields and degradation profiles.Circular pathway: assess how recovered monomers might connect to UK recycling and manufacturing supply chains.
What the study will test
Evidence quality
How consistent and transferable reported enzyme performance is across different studies and waste conditions.
Process plausibility
Which combinations of enzyme, polymer preparation and operating conditions merit future laboratory work.
UK pathway
Whether recovered feedstocks could support a credible future circular-manufacturing route in the UK.
From feasibility to application
EnzyLoop will bring enzyme selection, reaction conditions and circular supply-chain options into one structured feasibility assessment.Independent review will separate the strongest opportunities from the questions that still require laboratory validation. The outcome will guide the decision on whether to progress into experimental development and a future pilot phase.Environmental performance estimates will be treated as benchmarks for investigation, building a credible route from published research to practical industrial application.