Kyungpook National University, the First Carbon-Neutral University, Transfers ‘PET Plastic Biodegradation’ Technology to CJ CheilJedang
- Date
- 2021/10/28
- Writer
- Oh
- Hit
- 1534
Kyungpook National University (KNU) recently transferred ‘PET
plastic biodegradation’ technology developed by Professor Kyung-Jin Kim (School
of Life Sciences) to CJ CheilJedang (CEO Eun-seok Choi), signing a business
agreement for technology transfer and joint research.
To meet the continual increase in demand for high-quality
recycled PET, Korea currently imports recycled PET from Japan and other
countries. Last year, data from the Ministry of Environment showed that 10%, or
28,000 tons, of the 290,000 tons of waste PET produced in Korea were recycled
as high-quality PET. Through the implementation of mandatory regulations for
removing labels and recycling transparent PET bottles, government ministries have
also encouraged the use of domestically recycled PET.
The technology developed by Professor Kyung-Jin Kim improves
enzymes from biological resources to decompose PET plastic. This method is not
only more eco-friendly than other regeneration methods, but is also able to
recycle pieces of colored PET of relatively low-quality to 100% raw material of
PET. This research was carried out as an eco-friendly, bio-based technology
development project by the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the technology
transfer agreement was carried out with support from the Korean Intellectual
Property Office (Intellectual Property Revenue Reinvestment Project) and the
National Research Foundation (University’s Creative Asset Commercialization Project).
With this technology transfer, Professor Kim plans to continue research
and development (R&D) in Zien Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of KNU's holdings
company, with CJ CheilJedang.
Professor Kyung-Jin Kim states, "In order to effectively
solve the problems in recycling plastic, the ecosystem needs to perceive plastics
like trees. Biodegradation techniques are essential in this context. The
presently transferred technology uses enzyme engineering methods to develop
artificial enzymes that can decompose plastic. PET raw materials through
biodegradation can not only be recycled into nonwoven fabrics or cotton, but
also into sheets, fabrics, and transparent PETs. Moreover, PET raw materials
can also promote the decomposition of environmentally isolated waste."
Won-Hwa Hong, President of KNU, says, "As this technology
transfer is the first step in universities and companies working together to
industrialize domestically renewable PET, we hope projects of resource
circulation such as this will become core projects in realizing our goal of carbon
neutrality."