Team:Groningen

A plastic with high demand

In 2016, 335 million tonnes of plastic were produced. The vast majority is derived from crude oil and take a lot of energy to refine and produce. This process has an enormous negative impact of the environment.

A better source

Cellulose is an important component of many plants and algae and can therefore be found in the waste streams generated by agricultural and industrial processes. However, so far cellulose has been relatively difficult to biodegrade, preventing it from being used to its full potential.

Where we come in

We aim to engineer a yeast strain that is able to take in cellulose, degrade this into glucose and finally produces styrene as an end product. The first step in our project is equipping our yeast strain with a protein complex that breaks down cellulose into glucose.

Sustainable production

The next step in our project concerns the production of styrene. For this we can mostly rely on an endogenous pathway. We will just have to add the PAL2 enzyme from A. Thaliana which converts phenyl-analine to trans-cinnamate which is finally converted by the cell to styrene.

A brighter future

If our project succeeds we simultaneously would be able to lower the dependency on fossil fuels for styrene production and take the first few important steps towards the creation of a bio-based economy