A consortium of industry academia university researchers (Professor Park Yong Cheol, Kwak Su Ryang, and research professor Lee Ye Ji) from the department of Bio and Fermentation Convergence Technology at Kookmin University has been selected for the R&D project “Development of biodegradable polymeric materials and applications using high-performance enzyme activation technology for promoting room temperature biodegradation” under the Advanced Biotechnology Development Project of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's 2024 Bioindustrial Technology Development Project.  

(From left to right, Professor Park Yong Cheol, Professor Kwak Su Ryang, and Research Professor Lee Ye Ji, department of Bio and Fermentation Convergence Technology, Kookmin University)

The project, which will be funded with a total of 60.1 billion won (47.5 billion won in government funding) over a period of 4 years and 9 months, aims to develop environmentally tailored enzymes for regulating and promoting degradation and commercialize biodegradable plastics for efficient biodegradation of products using biodegradable polymeric plastics.

Prof. Park Yong Cheol research team is in charge of the first research group, which is responsible for enzyme development research, and will be working to discover high-performance enzymes and microorganisms that promote the biodegradation of poly lactic acid (PLA), a representative biodegradable plastic, from domestic resources, and to develop enzyme-microbe systems and industrialized fermentation processes to maximize PLA degradation. 

Biodegradable plastics are polymeric materials that can be decomposed through the action of enzymes and microorganisms in the natural world, and their market size is growing steeply as awareness of and demand for environmentally friendly materials increases, as they can contribute to sustainable waste management and ecosystem protection by providing excellent carbon reduction effects compared to conventional plastics derived from fossil resources such as petroleum, which threaten the climate environment. 

However, PLA, which accounts for the majority of the biodegradable plastic market, has a problem that it takes decades to fully degrade under normal natural composting conditions. As a solution to this problem, Prof. Park Yong Cheol says, “We can develop technologies to accelerate PLA degradation by discovering and improving enzymes and microorganisms that biodegrade PLA and optimizing process technologies. 

The development of these new technologies will open up the market for high-performance plastic degradation enzymes and secure the market competitiveness of biodegradable polymeric plastics.” ‘Through the technology development of this project, we expect to expand the scope of discovery and improvement of high-performance enzymes and microorganisms that promote biodegradation of other biodegradable polymeric plastics other than PLA.’ He added.

The consortium consists of our university, the host company Isol Industries, Kyung Hee University (Prof. Sungyeon Hwang), Korea University (Prof. Yongsik Ok), University of Sydney (Prof. Ali Abbas), Korea Institute of Construction and Living Environment Testing, Korea Textile Development Institute, Amicogen, CJ-HDC Biosol, and LG Chem.