2ndUpChance - A second chance for Upcycling of Microplastics

Project team: Paul Christakopoulos (project leader), Suman Bajracharya, Leonidas Matsakas, Alok Kumar Patel, Ulrika Rova

Partner: Kerstin Ramser, Experimental Mechanics LTU

Duration: 2024-2027

Funded by the Swedish research Council (VR)

Microplastics (MPs) are of growing concern to the public because of their potential toxicity and bioaccumulation in living organisms. Given that a large share of MPs pollution is wear-related, sorting and recycling alone are not sufficient to reduce the spillage of MPs into the environment, and from there up the food web. To address the global environmental and health hazards associated with plastic waste pollution, it is necessary to prevent the discharge of MPs into the aquatic environment. 2ndUpChance will exploit the use of Raman spectroscopy, carbon isotope labelling, bioelectrochemical systems, biodegradation of recalcitrant feedstocks, and microbial oleogenesis to develop an integrated process that harnesses the chemical energy held in plastic polymers, thus upcycling MPs to value-added compounds. 2ndUpChance will enable and optimize the upcycling process by i) accurately monitoring the transfer of carbon from MPs to value-added products through microbial metabolism, ii) developing cost-effective MPs oxidation methods to facilitate the biodegradation of MP-rich streams, and iii) integrating microbial processes capable of converting the carbon in MPs to industrially valuable polyunsaturated fatty acids. This approach represents a synergistic effort to incorporate MPs into a circular economy, transforming a waste-pollution problem into a value-added product concept.