Bio Development

Paper is one of the most common natural resources we used in everyday life. The invention of paper allowed human to record knowledge and spread information rapidly. In modern world, the enormous amount of paper usage is decreasing the tree density around the globe. Paper reuse is a strategy of reducing tree cut, but recycling paper isn’t an easy job. Paper are made of different fibers depending on the manufacturing process, and printed with different inks. These reasons increase the difficulty of turning the pulp clean and ready for use. Deinking is the process which separates the ink and paper fiber during the cleanup of reprocessed paper pulp. The deinking process in the industry use chemical reagents like detergent, alkali which would cause water pollution and air pollution. Our plan is to replace the chemical reagents with biological enzymes, turning the waste into an environmentally friendly organic compound. We are going to create a controllable enzyme secrete system which would extend the limit of deinking and be more eco-friendly.

Modeling

In the enzymatic deinking process, our project mainly focus on three deinking enzymes, such as xylanase, glucanase, and lipase. However, there are many different kinds of organism producing these enzymes, and the amino acid sequences are slightly different from each other. In order to find out the enzymes which have the best deinking efficiency, Information and Simulation group has utilized several software and technique to analyze hundreds of enzymes’ binding affinity with their ligand, and provided the result to bio-development group for constructing biobricks. We have firstly searched the templates of related homologous proteins by using SWISS-MODEL, and downloaded all these protein 3D structure files from RCSB protein data bank. Before performing protein docking, the protein conformation problem is fixed, and the energy minimization of ligands is also done by using Discovery Studio in order to increase the accuracy of result. Another simulation software, AutoDock can simulate the docking between enzyme and ligand, and helps to calculate the binding affinity. We have ranked the binding affinity of hundreds of enzymes, and visualized the top 10 docking situation by using PyMOL. Consequently, the bio-development group able to construct the plasmid base on this docking result.   Furthermore, Information and simulation group has also built the wiki page to present our project, the enzymatic deinking developed by 2017 iGEM CGU Taiwan team.

Device

We utilize photo-induced system to stimulate yeast expressing enzyme. For reacting on the specific place to maintain the strength of recycling paper, we design a device to determine the location of ink on the paper. In order to test enzyme efficiency, we imitate the paper recycle process of industry method and make paper. After recycling process, we scan the paper and calculate the amount of residual ink. First, we take a picture of a piece of paper which has ink with cellphone. Based on RGB color level, we design software to calculate the degree of blackness on each pixel, and distinguish where present the ink. Then the data is transferred through the microcontroller, called Arduino, let LED matrix turn on the illumination on the position which have ink. After spreading the yeast on paper, we lay the LED matrix on the paper, turn on the light to stimulate the yeast on specific area. The second part that engineering group in charge of is testing the efficiency of enzyme. We establish a paper reprocess protocol after using enzyme to deink. First of all, the waste paper would be blended into pulp, utilize the physical strength to disperse fiber. The purpose of next step, called flotation, is to remove the ink from fiber. We put a pump at the bottom to make bubbles. Because the ink can attach on the lipophilic side of bubbles, the ink will be dispersed from fiber and follow with bubble up to the surface. Scrap the bubble on the surface to get the clean pulp. The last step is paper making, we heat the pulp and apply the pressure to make the paper.

Marketing

Paper is one of the most common natural resources we used in everyday life. The invention of paper allowed human to record knowledge and spread information rapidly. In modern world, the enormous amount of paper usage is decreasing the tree density around the globe. Paper reuse is a strategy of reducing tree cut, but recycling paper isn’t an easy job. Paper are made of different fibers depending on the manufacturing process, and printed with different inks. These reasons increase the difficulty of turning the pulp clean and ready for use. Deinking is the process which separates the ink and paper fiber during the cleanup of reprocessed paper pulp. The deinking process in the industry use chemical reagents like detergent, alkali which would cause water pollution and air pollution. Our plan is to replace the chemical reagents with biological enzymes, turning the waste into an environmentally friendly organic compound. We are going to create a controllable enzyme secrete system which would extend the limit of deinking and be more eco-friendly.