Novel urethanases for the enzymatic degradation of polyurethanes
AssigneeCovestro Deutschland AG
InventorsLukas Reisky, Gernot Jaeger, Simone Goebbels, Vera Essmann, Igor Pochorovski, Uwe Bornscheuer, Christoffel Badenhorst, Ren Wei, Yannick Branson, Carolin Buchmann
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Abstract
The invention relates to novel urethanases for the enzymatic degradation of polyurethanes and to an enzymatic process for the complete degradation of polyurethanes in defined monomers.
Claims11
A polypeptide having an amino acid sequence as defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3, or a variant thereof,
- wherein the variant is obtained by the addition, deletion or exchange of up to 15% of the amino acids present in the respective polypeptide defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3, and
- wherein the polypeptide has urethanase activity.
A method of breaking down a polyurethane, comprising enzymatically cleaving urethane linkages with a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence as defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3, or a variant thereof,
- wherein the variant is obtained by the addition, deletion or exchange of up to 15% of the amino acids present in the respective polypeptide defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3, and
- wherein the polypeptide has urethanase activity.
A nucleic acid encoding a polypeptide as defined by SEQ ID NO. 1, 2 or 3 or a variant thereof having urethanase activity,
- wherein the variant is obtained by the addition, deletion or exchange of up to 15% of the amino acids present in the respective polypeptide defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3.
A process comprising treating a low-molecular-weight urethane with a polypeptide having urethanase activity and having an amino acid sequence as defined by SEQ ID No. 1, 2 or 3, or a variant thereof,
- wherein the variant is obtained by the addition, deletion or exchange of up to 15% of the amino acids present in the respective polypeptide defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3,
- thereby cleaving the low-molecular-weight urethane.
A method of breaking down a low molecular weight urethane, comprising cleaving a urethane linkage with at least one polypeptide having urethanase activity and having an amino acid sequence as defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3 or having an amino acid sequence with at least 85% sequence identity thereto.
A process for breaking down a polyester polyurethane into low-molecular-weight breakdown products, comprising:
- a) cleaving the ester groups present in the polyester polyurethane;
- and
- b) treating the polyurethane with a polypeptide having urethanase activity and selected from the group consisting of polypeptides as defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 and 3 and variants of said polypeptides,
- wherein the variants are obtained by the addition, deletion or exchange of up to 15% of the amino acids present in the respective polypeptide defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3;
- and
- with the proviso that process steps a) and b) are carried out in either order or in parallel.
A process comprising:
- a) transurethanizing a polyether polyurethane with at least one low-molecular-weight alcohol to form polyether polyols and low-molecular-weight urethanes;
- and
- b) enzymatically cleaving the low-molecular-weight urethanes formed in process step a) with a polypeptide having urethanase activity and selected from the group consisting of polypeptides as defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 and 3 and variants of said polypeptides,
- wherein the variants are obtained by the addition, deletion or exchange of up to 15% of the amino acids present in the respective polypeptide defined by SEQ ID NO.:
- 1, 2 or 3.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.