The Challenge with Polyurethane

Polyurethane (PU) is everywhere – in mattresses, car seats, insulation materials, and sports shoes. From construction and automotive industries to textiles and electronics, PU has become an indispensable material in our modern world. It's versatile, durable, and comfortable. Yet these very properties make it a real problem for our environment: polyurethane is extremely difficult to recycle.

The numbers are staggering: Every year, millions of tons of PU products end up in landfills or are incinerated. The complex chemical structure that makes polyurethane so durable also makes it nearly impossible to break down through conventional recycling methods. Traditional mechanical recycling often degrades the material quality, while chemical recycling requires harsh conditions – high temperatures, aggressive solvents, and enormous energy input.

The consequences are severe:

• Valuable raw materials are lost forever
• Increasing amounts of plastic waste accumulate in landfills
• Incineration releases CO₂ and other pollutants
• The production of virgin PU continues to consume fossil resources
• Growing volumes in sectors like construction, automotive, and consumer goods intensify the problem

With the global push towards a circular economy and stricter regulations on plastic waste, the need for sustainable PU recycling solutions has never been more urgent.

  Bridging Discovery and Industrial Application - The Sporozyme Project

A game-changing discovery in recent years has opened new doors: scientists have identified specialized enzymes – so-called polyurethanases – that can naturally break down polyurethane. These remarkable "molecular scissors" can cleave the chemical bonds that make PU so resistant to conventional recycling.

While this discovery was groundbreaking, bringing it from the laboratory to industrial application poses major challenges. This is where our SporoZyme project comes in: We are developing an innovative method to transform these enzymes into a robust, scalable technology for industrial polyurethane recycling. These biological catalysts can break down PU into its original building blocks, which can then be reused to create new, high-quality products.

  Our Innovation: Spore Display Technology for Industrial Application

What makes our approach special: We use bacterial spores as tiny biofactories. On their surface, they display optimized enzymes that can break down polyurethane particularly effectively. Through targeted evolution and cutting-edge biotechnology, we continuously improve these enzymes – until they function reliably even under industrial conditions.  By introducing a novel platform for systematic enzyme evolution, we overcome the fundamental limitations of traditional enzyme libraries and unlock a new level of efficiency, scalability, and industrial relevance in enzyme development.

Why is this revolutionary?

• Environmentally friendly: No harsh chemicals, no high temperatures
• Efficient: Enzymes work precisely and quickly
• Sustainable: Old PU products become new raw materials
• Economical: Reduced production costs through raw material recovery

  Together for a Sustainable Future

The SporoZyme project is supported through FuE funding (Forschungs- und Entwicklungsvorhaben). It brings together expertise from biocatalysis, enzyme technology, materials science, and process development.

The project is being carried out in close collaboration with the University Medicine Greifswald (Völker Research Group) and the University of Greifswald (Bornscheuer Research Group), combining academic know-how with industrial innovation.

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Contact for further information: info@protec-diagnostics.com

Project Start: 08/25