Enzyme driven performance enhancement of laundry detergents: reducing the associated environmental burden

The project aims to reduce the environmental burden of laundry across three main research areas; developing enzymatic solutions to increase the longevity of clothing, creating a novel methodology to quantify the release of plastic microfibres, and determining the fate of textile associated plastic in the environment. The project will develop novel methodologies in each of these areas to improve the sustainability of the textile industry.

By creating enzymatic solutions targeting specific regions within textiles it will allow enzymes to be engineered making them more efficient. This will be achieved by determining the physiochemical interactions between enzymes and the textile surface utilising novel technologies, increasing the longevity of clothing. By increasing a garments lifespan, it will help reduce the rapid rate of clothing being discarded by consumers.

In the current absence of no standardised protocol, a novel methodology simulating full-scale washing that can more accurately quantify plastic microfibre release could be used by industry to determine microfibre release rates, but also highlight the key drivers of release that will inform mitigation strategies.

Plastic microfibres that are released during laundry can be found entering the environment in large quantities. Determining the fate of these plastic materials by designing metagenomic (large quantities of genetic data) analysis tools and creating unique protocols for investigating substrates with potential plastic degrading microbes, will highlight the microbial community associated with plastic in environmental conditions. From this, species can be targeted for enzymatic engineering, for example increasing the temperature at which these enzymes are optimal may increase the degradation rate in highly crystalline polymers. Enzymes characterised could be used by industry to engineer biodegradation solutions to plastic recycling.