Viable biotechnological production of industrial methacrylate polymers

A global challenge is to improve the way in which mankind improves the consumption and disposal of

commodity plastics. Alternative strategies to permit production of chemically identical “like-for-like”

materials from sustainable biobased feedstocks as alternatives to existing petrochemical sources is

required to help met the improve consumption and disposal of plastics. This application to Innovate UK

is seeking to develop highly efficient routes to prepare polymethacrylates (i.e. Perspex) from non-fossil

carbon based feedstocks. The project partners will build bespoke bacteria using state of the art synthetic

biology methods to enable production of methacrylate intermediates. We shall recover and test the

intermediates for their practical suitability in preparing and forming the plastics that Lucite sells to its

existing customers.