Enzymes for consumer products to achieve climate neutrality

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  • Patricia Molina-Espeja
    CSIC, Madrid
  • Julia Sanz-Aparicio
    CSIC, Madrid
  • Peter Golyshin
  • Ana Robles-Martin
    Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC),
  • Victor Guallar
    Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC),
  • Fabrizio Beltrametti
    BioC-Chem Solutions SRL, Italy
  • Markus Muller
    Cluster Industrielle Biotechnologie e.V.
  • Mikhail Yakimov
    Institute of Polar Sciences, ISP-CNR, Messina, Italy
  • Jan Modregger
    Eucodis Bioscience GMBH, Austria
  • Moniec van Logchem
    Evonik Operations GMBH, Germany
  • Philippe Corvini
    University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
  • Patrick Shahgaldian
    University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
  • Christian Degering
    Henkel AG & Co, Germany
  • Susanne Wieland
    Henkel AG & Co, Germany
  • Anne Timm
    Inofea AG, Switzerland
  • Carla C.C.R. de Carvalho
    Universidade de Lisboa
  • Ilaria Re
    Consorzio Italbiotec, Italy
  • Sara Daniotti
    Consorzio Italbiotec, Italy
  • Stephan Thies
    Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
  • Karl-Erich Jaeger
    Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
  • Jennifer Chow
    University of Hamburg
  • Wolfgang R. Streit
    University of Hamburg
  • Roland Lottenbach
    Schoeller Textil AG, Switzerland
  • Rainer Rosch
    Schoeller Textil AG, Switzerland
  • Nazanin Ansari
    Schoeller Textil AG, Switzerland
  • Manuel Ferrer
    CSIC, Institute of Catalysis, Madrid
Lay Summary: Accumulated greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase from 36.2 to 60 gigatons over the next three decades. The global surface temperature has increased by +1.09°C since 2001, and might increase by +2.2°C in 2100, +3.6°C in 2200 and +4.6°C in 2500. These emissions and temperature rise cannot be reduced in their entirety, but they can be lowered by using enzymes. Enzymes are proteins that catalyze biochemical reactions that make life possible since 3.8 billion years ago. Scientists have been able to ‘domesticate’ them in such a way that enzymes, and their engineered variants, are now key players of the circular economy. With a world production of 117 kilo-tons and a trade of 14.5 billion-dollars, they have the potential to annually decrease CO2 emissions by 1–2.5 billion-tons, the carbon demand to synthesize chemicals by 200 million-tons, the amount of chemicals by 90 million-tons, and the economic losses derived from global warming by 0.5%, while promoting biodiversity and our planet’s health. Our success to increase these benefits will depend on better integration of enzymatic solutions in different sectors.

Keywords

  • bioeconomy, climate change, consumer products, cosmetics, detergent, enzymes, greenhouse gas emissions, textiles
Original languageEnglish
Article numberkgad003
JournalOxford Open Climate Change
Volume3
Issue number1
Early online date15 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Apr 2023

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