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An international team is working on an enzyme that can digest polyethylene terephthalate, a common plastic often found in bottles.
An international team is working on an enzyme that can digest polyethylene terephthalate, a common plastic often found in bottles. Photograph: David Jones/University of Portsmouth
An international team is working on an enzyme that can digest polyethylene terephthalate, a common plastic often found in bottles. Photograph: David Jones/University of Portsmouth

The UK's green discoveries: plastic-eating enzymes and seawater biofuels

This article is more than 5 years old

Researchers across the UK are working hard to prevent further climate breakdown. Here are their latest findings

We don’t have long to get our act together on climate change, according to a UN report released earlier this month. In the next 12 years, we need to reverse the trend of Earth’s increasing temperature or face drought, floods and extreme heat – and devastating knock-on effects felt by all life on the planet.

But what can we do? And can we do it quickly enough? Researchers in universities across the UK are working on answers to these huge questions. Here are some of their most exciting recent sustainability findings.

A plastic-eating enzyme

You’ve probably seen the distressing images of plastic-polluted oceans, or the nearly 50-year-old plastic bottle that just washed up on UK shores. Luckily, scientists from the University of Portsmouth may have a solution. They are part of an international team working on an enzyme that can digest polyethylene terephthalate, a common plastic often found in bottles. This could lead to the millions of tonnes of plastic waste currently polluting the environment disappearing a lot faster than the usual hundreds of years it takes to degrade. The same team has also recently discovered an enzyme that turns waste into useful materials, which could be used to create nylon and bioplastics.

A genome map of the golden eagle

As gene-sequencing technology becomes more and more advanced, the Wellcome Trust has joined forces with universities across the country to sequence the genomes of 25 species, including a collaboration with the University of Edinburgh to map the DNA of the golden eagle. Their habitats are disappearing and the population is falling, so having the whole genome is a “game-changer”, according to the lead scientist on the project. This will allow for previously impossible research into all aspects of the birds’ lives, including their reintroduction to areas where they have disappeared.

A plan to cut carbon emissions

Renewable energy technology is advancing, but we need to do all we can to cut carbon emissions. Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield have a simple solution: gas. They found that the UK reduced its carbon emissions by 25% in 2016 as a result of using the country’s gas infrastructure at its full capacity, and their projections suggest that global carbon emissions could be cut by 3% per year if other countries adopted the same approach. It’s not a long-term strategy, the team says, but offers a quick and cheap solution to reduce emissions while other approaches are developed.

Professor Juerg Matter standing next the injection well at the CarbFix pilot CO2 injection site in Iceland during the initial CO2 injection. Photograph: Sigurdur Gislason

A storage solution for man-made carbon dioxide

Removing man-made carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by injecting it into volcanic bedrock was previously dismissed as impractical, because it was thought that the process would take hundreds of years. But an international team of scientists, including an associate professor from the University of Southampton, injected CO2 into a study site in Iceland and found that between 95 and 98% of it had formed “environmentally benign” minerals within two years.

An urban wind turbine

Wind turbines aren’t just based in remote places for aesthetic reasons – they are only able to harness wind that is travelling in one direction which is why they don’t work in cities, where the layout bends gusts all over the place. The O-Wind Turbine, created by two MSc students at Lancaster University, overcomes this: it’s a 25cm sphere which spins when wind hits it from any direction, generating energy even in built-up urban areas. The project has already won this year’s national James Dyson award.

A new fibre made from 98% water

Architects and chemists from the University of Cambridge have joined forces to create a new material that mimics spider silk. The artificial fibres are made from 98% water and are incredibly strong (with similar qualities to bungee cord), which means the material could be used in textiles and other industries. Crucially, it is non-toxic and can be created at room temperature, offering a sustainable alternative to the current methods of production of synthetic materials.

A biofuel that uses seawater

Biofuels are a hot topic, and bioethanol is of particular interest: it’s a liquid petrol substitute than can be created from crops including corn, maize, wheat and waste straw. But the current fermentation process needs freshwater, which puts a drain on another valuable resource. Microbiologists from the University of Nottingham have discovered that seawater and a marine-based yeast can be used in the process, making it an even more sustainable option.

A way to convert agricultural waste into clean energy

Scientists from the University of Manchester have been working with communities in Vietnam, Colombia and sub-Saharan Africa to turn waste products from agriculture into clean fuel. Now they’re going a step further by partnering with renewable energy companies to build a pilot processing plant in the Philippines that will make use of rice straw, a waste product from rice farming that is usually burned in fields.

Rice straw collection in the Philippines. Photograph: Angela Mae Minas

A new solar energy source

The wish-list for any environmentally friendly fuel source includes being cheap, clean and reproducible on a large scale. Researchers from the University of Exeter may have found one that ticks all three boxes: by using a photoelectrode that absorbs light and splits water into oxygen and hydrogen, they’ve developed a new technique for turning the latter into fuel. Because it’s powered by sunlight, the method will reduce carbon emissions and create a “virtually limitless” energy source.

A battery that charges electric cars in seconds

One of the biggest problems with electric cars is how long they take to charge – getting a full battery often means leaving them plugged in overnight. Chemists from the University of Glasgow have developed a new battery system using “a nano-molecule that can store electric power or hydrogen gas” that could fully charge an electric car battery in just a few seconds, making it far more appealing for consumers.

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