{"schema_version":1,"research_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp06_external_evaluation_20260803","source_assessment_id":"catalytic_pathway_enablement__chemistry_materials:P1:v0","cell_id":"catalytic_pathway_enablement__chemistry_materials","search_queries":["site:europa.eu textile waste recycling PET enzymatic recycling Horizon Europe official need","immobilized cutinase PET textile hydrolysis reuse cycles study","PET textile enzymatic hydrolysis immobilized enzyme reactor","textile PET recycling enzymatic depolymerization dyes additives inhibition study","site:carbios.com enzymatic recycling polyester textile waste industrial plant official 2025","site:environment.ec.europa.eu textiles strategy recycling waste official PET","site:cordis.europa.eu enzymatic recycling textile PET project","site:iso.org immobilized enzymes reactor safety standard enzyme industrial biotechnology","\"PET\" cutinase immobilized support reuse hydrolysis textile fibers basket","immobilized PETase carrier reuse cycles PET hydrolysis primary research 2024","covalently immobilized cutinase PET hydrolysis support reuse cycles","PET depolymerization immobilized enzyme packed bed reactor primary study","bench scale jacketed stirred reactor 100 mL price 2026 laboratory","HPLC system price official vendor 2025 analytical chemistry","PETase enzyme price commercial recombinant LCC enzyme","immobilized enzyme support resin price laboratory 2026","\"Nearly complete depolymerization of untreated post-consumer plastic\" DOI","\"Recycling the recyclers\" immobilisation PET-degrading cutinase journal DOI","\"Solid-State Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Mixed PET/Cotton Textiles\" DOI","site:carbios.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07 100 batches textile market July 21 2026 pdf Carbios","site:carbios.com 100th batch textile waste 95% conversion within 24 hours 2026"],"sources":[{"source_id":"S1","title":"Sustainable and Circular Textiles Strategy","publisher":"European Commission, Directorate-General for Environment","url":"https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/textiles-strategy_en","source_class":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","publication_date":"2022-03-30; webpage current through 2026","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["EU textile consumption has major environmental impacts.","Approximately five million tonnes of clothing are discarded annually in the EU and only about 1% of clothing material is recycled into new clothing.","EU policy seeks sufficient textile-recycling capacity and funds development of circular textile technologies."]},{"source_id":"S2","title":"WHITECYCLE: Upscaling of innovative processes for the recycling of PET from complex wastes","publisher":"European Commission CORDIS","url":"https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101059639","source_class":"OFFICIAL_ORGANIZATION_DATA","publication_date":"2022","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["An EU-funded, Michelin-coordinated consortium explicitly identifies an urgent need for circular processing of complex PET waste.","The project targets enzymatic monomer recovery from multicomponent textiles and includes brand owners, waste managers, a PET converter and an enzymatic-recycling company.","The project plans real-use demonstrations and scale-up from TRL 5 toward TRL 6-8."]},{"source_id":"S3","title":"Carbios reaches milestone of 100 batches at its industrial demonstration plant and expands its licensing offering to the textile market","publisher":"Carbios","url":"https://www.carbios.com/en/carbios-reaches-milestone-of-100-batches-at-its-industrial-demonstration-plant-and-expands-its-licensing-offering-to-the-textile-market/","source_class":"COMMERCIAL_FIRST_PARTY","publication_date":"2026-07-21","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["Carbios reports enzymatic processing of complex PET-rich post-consumer textile streams under industrially representative conditions.","Carbios reports greater than 95% conversion within 24 hours and expansion of its licensing offer to textile applications.","Industrial enzymatic PET-textile depolymerization is therefore not merely hypothetical, although the release does not establish use of a reusable basket."]},{"source_id":"S4","title":"Recycling the recyclers: strategies for the immobilisation of a PET-degrading cutinase","publisher":"Springer Nature / Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering","url":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-025-03131-7","source_class":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","publication_date":"2025-01-29","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["Immobilized cutinase was tested on post-industrial textile PET fibres in stirred-tank reactors with HPLC product analysis and repeated reuse.","A pH-responsive immobilisate exceeded 97% terephthalic-acid yield in under 14 hours for the first three cycles and remained near 78% by cycle five.","Conventional porous solid carriers and cross-linked aggregates suffered severe substrate-accessibility, stability or reuse losses, directly challenging a porous-basket design.","The study already implements much of the claimed facilitator cycle: immobilization, separation, washing, activity assay, reuse and retirement-relevant degradation monitoring."]},{"source_id":"S5","title":"Nearly complete depolymerization of untreated post-consumer plastic with an immobilized and reusable PET hydrolase","publisher":"Journal of Hazardous Materials; record hosted by Universidade de Santiago de Compostela","url":"https://investigacion.usc.gal/documentos/6844b0afe2a55c4fb915a4eb","source_class":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","publication_date":"2025","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["Peer-reviewed prior art explicitly reports an immobilized, reusable PET hydrolase for untreated post-consumer plastic.","The result further narrows any claim that immobilization and reuse of PET hydrolases is itself distinctive."]},{"source_id":"S6","title":"Solid-State Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Mixed PET/Cotton Textiles","publisher":"Wiley / ChemSusChem","url":"https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202201613","source_class":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","publication_date":"2022-09-27","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["High-crystallinity PET in mixed PET/cotton textile was directly and selectively depolymerized using commercial cutinase.","The study obtained up to 30±2% terephthalic-acid yield without melt amorphization, confirming textile-feed feasibility while showing that feed structure and accessibility materially constrain conversion.","Enzymatic treatment of mixed textiles predates the candidate and provides a non-basket comparator."]},{"source_id":"S7","title":"Enzyme Immobilization Services Catalog","publisher":"Solidzymes","url":"https://solidzymes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Enzyme-Immobilization-Catalog.pdf","source_class":"COMMERCIAL_FIRST_PARTY","publication_date":"2025-04","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["Listed 2025 prices include $4,000-$6,000 for 48-carrier screening, $3,000-$4,000 for assay development, $500 per stability test and $10,000-$20,000 for an immobilized-enzyme reactor prototype.","These prices anchor only the first-evidence band; they do not establish full PET pilot deployment or annual operating cost."]},{"source_id":"S8","title":"Jacketed Glass Reactor","publisher":"ConductScience","url":"https://conductscience.com/lab/jacketed-glass-reactor","source_class":"COMMERCIAL_FIRST_PARTY","publication_date":"undated","accessed_at":"2026-08-03","claims_supported":["A currently listed jacketed stirred-reactor system costs about $2,900 before ancillary temperature-control, analytical, containment and labor costs.","Commercial benchtop stirred-reactor equipment exists for a bounded trial, although the listed minimum volume is larger than the proposed 100 mL batches."]}],"problem_evidence":{"support":"MODERATE","rationale":"The textile-recycling problem and need for PET-rich complex-waste processing are strongly visible at policy and industrial-program levels. Primary studies also verify that PET-textile enzymatic conversion is constrained by polymer accessibility and process time. However, no external source verifies the candidate's specific local assertion that bond cleavage, rather than feed preparation, analysis or purification, is the rate-limiting burden at the unnamed pilot.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S4","S6"]},"stakeholder_evidence":{"support":"STRONG","rationale":"The European Commission has funded WHITECYCLE, coordinated by Michelin and involving identifiable converters, waste managers and enzymatic-recycling expertise, specifically to address complex PET waste including multicomponent textiles. Carbios also reports an active textile licensing offer and industrially representative trials. Neither source commits to adopting this removable-basket design.","source_ids":["S2","S3"]},"prior_art":{"proximity":"SUBSTANTIAL_COLLISION","closest_analogues":[{"name":"Immobilized ICCG cutinase reused for textile-PET hydrolysis in stirred tanks","similarity":"Uses immobilized PET-active enzyme, textile PET substrate, controlled stirred-tank operation, HPLC product assays, recovery, washing, activity measurement and five sequential hydrolysis cycles.","remaining_difference":"The best-performing system is a pH-responsive soluble/precipitable carrier rather than a mechanically removable porous basket; the study's conventional solid carriers performed poorly, making the basket geometry a narrow and risky remaining difference.","source_ids":["S4"]},{"name":"Immobilized and reusable PET hydrolase for untreated post-consumer plastic","similarity":"Directly combines PET depolymerization, enzyme immobilization, catalyst recovery and reuse.","remaining_difference":"The externally visible record does not establish PET-rich textile fines, a removable basket or the candidate's matched basket controls.","source_ids":["S5"]},{"name":"Carbios industrial enzymatic PET-textile recycling","similarity":"Processes complex PET-rich textile waste in repeated, industrially representative batches and targets high conversion and licensing.","remaining_difference":"The first-party release does not say that enzyme is covalently immobilized in a reusable removable basket or report basket-specific leaching and regeneration.","source_ids":["S3"]},{"name":"WHITECYCLE complex-PET enzymatic recycling program","similarity":"Targets enzymatic recovery of PET monomers from complex waste including multicomponent clothing textiles, with industrial partners and scale-up objectives.","remaining_difference":"It is a broader integrated sorting-and-recycling program and does not establish the proposed removable-basket catalyst cycle.","source_ids":["S2"]}],"distinctive_claim_remaining":"For a prequalified micronized PET-rich textile-fines slurry, a mechanically removable porous basket bearing covalently immobilized PET hydrolase will shorten time to an unchanged accepted product specification versus no-enzyme and bare-basket controls, while avoiding the product-separation burden of matched soluble enzyme and retaining predefined activity, selectivity, mechanical integrity and below-limit enzyme leaching through multiple rinse/regeneration cycles. This is narrower than immobilized-enzyme PET recycling generally.","confidence":"HIGH"},"implementation_evidence":{"support":"MODERATE","rationale":"The chemistry, assays, stirred-tank workflow and repeated immobilisate recovery are demonstrated. Off-the-shelf benchtop reactors and contract immobilization services make a small trial technically accessible. The decisive basket-specific interface is unresolved: primary evidence shows solid supports can sharply reduce contact between immobilized enzyme and macromolecular PET, while textile composition, dyes, finishes, fine-particle fouling, enzyme leaching and downstream purification remain feed- and facility-specific. No jurisdiction, named facility, occupational-enzyme assessment, waste classification or written EHS authorization was supplied.","source_ids":["S4","S5","S6","S7","S8"]},"scores":{"meaningful_impact":{"score":4,"rationale":"Textile waste is large and fiber-to-fiber recycling is rare; a reusable catalyst that genuinely reduces enzyme and separation burdens could matter. Realized impact and the share of fines suitable for this route are unmeasured.","source_ids":["S1","S2"]},"stakeholder_pull":{"score":4,"rationale":"EU funding, an industrial consortium and Carbios licensing activity demonstrate strong pull for enzymatic processing of complex PET textiles, but not for this particular basket.","source_ids":["S2","S3"]},"incremental_advantage":{"score":2,"rationale":"Mechanical removal could simplify catalyst separation relative to soluble enzyme or pH-responsive immobilisate, but no performance or cost data support that advantage and solid immobilization has shown serious accessibility losses.","source_ids":["S4","S5"]},"distinctiveness_plausibility":{"score":2,"rationale":"The defensible distinction is limited to basket topology, covalent retention and the specified fines/feed workflow. Immobilized reusable PET hydrolases and repeated textile-PET hydrolysis are already published.","source_ids":["S3","S4","S5"]},"technical_implementability":{"score":3,"rationale":"A controlled 100 mL-scale experiment is implementable, but effective PET-surface contact through a porous immobilization support is the central unresolved technical risk.","source_ids":["S4","S6","S7","S8"]},"adoption_authority_feasibility":{"score":3,"rationale":"A process owner, analytical lead and EHS reviewer could authorize a contained bench trial through ordinary facility procedures, but the candidate names no actual facility, authority, jurisdiction or committed operator.","source_ids":["S2"]},"evidence_readiness":{"score":4,"rationale":"Conversion curves, HPLC product distributions, retained activity, leaching, mass balance and sequential reuse are measurable, and credible comparators are known. Local feed and basket data are absent.","source_ids":["S4","S6"]},"safety_net_benefit":{"score":4,"rationale":"The proposed sealed batches, containment, unchanged product specification, alternate non-catalytic path and stop/retirement rules substantially limit trial harm. Facility-specific EHS approval remains necessary.","source_ids":["S4"]},"scalability":{"score":2,"rationale":"Industrial enzymatic textile conversion is credible, but a basket handling solids faces mass transfer, fouling, mixing, pressure/flow, enzyme life and downstream-capacity risks. Bench success would not establish scale-up.","source_ids":["S2","S3","S4"]}},"score_confidence":"MODERATE","costs":{"first_evidence":{"band_2026_usd":"10K_TO_50K","scope":"Design or procure one immobilized-enzyme basket and run the preregistered 18-batch, 100 mL matched-control/reuse experiment with HPLC product assays, enzyme-leaching assays, retained-activity tests and basic EHS review.","confidence":"MODERATE","assumptions":["Existing staff, HPLC access, temperature-control equipment and approved feed are available.","Commercial catalog prices of $10,000-$20,000 for an immobilized-enzyme reactor prototype and $3,000-$6,000 for screening/assay work are applicable order-of-magnitude anchors.","The trial does not require de novo enzyme engineering or hazardous-feed characterization."],"source_ids":["S7","S8"]},"initial_deployment_startup":{"band_2026_usd":"50K_TO_250K","scope":"A repeatable multi-liter pilot installation with custom basket fabrication, instrumented mixing and temperature control, validated analytical methods, containment, SOPs, operator training and a small inventory of immobilized enzyme.","confidence":"LOW","assumptions":["The host already has suitable laboratory space, HPLC capability and waste-handling infrastructure.","Scale remains pilot rather than production.","No major building, pressure-vessel or production-line modification is required."],"source_ids":["S4","S7","S8"]},"operational_launch":{"band_2026_usd":"250K_TO_1M","scope":"Launch of a small textile-recycling pilot cell integrating feed qualification, basket handling/regeneration, reactor controls, analytical release, downstream purification coordination and EHS/environmental compliance.","confidence":"LOW","assumptions":["This is a pilot-scale operational launch, not a commercial plant.","Existing utilities, purification assets and licensed enzyme production are reused.","Industrial scale-up, permitting and enzyme-manufacturing capital are excluded."],"source_ids":["S2","S3","S4"]},"annual_recurring":{"band_2026_usd":"50K_TO_250K","scope":"Operator and analytical labor, replacement enzyme/supports and baskets, HPLC columns and standards, buffer, water, washing, energy, maintenance, waste characterization and disposal for a small pilot.","confidence":"LOW","assumptions":["One-shift pilot operation with shared analytical personnel.","Enzyme lifetime and regeneration yield are not yet known and dominate the range.","Downstream monomer purification is largely pre-existing and is not fully charged to this intervention."],"source_ids":["S4","S7"]}},"verified_pipeline_gates":{"externally_supported_problem":{"status":"YES","reason":"Official policy, funded industrial work and primary studies support a material textile-PET recycling problem and technically consequential accessibility/process barriers, although the unnamed pilot's exact bottleneck remains unverified.","source_ids":["S1","S2","S4","S6"]},"externally_credible_adopter_or_authorizer":{"status":"YES","reason":"The EU-funded WHITECYCLE consortium and Carbios are identifiable, credible funder/industrial actors expressing a need for enzymatic recycling of complex PET textiles. Commitment to this basket is not established.","source_ids":["S2","S3"]},"distinct_testable_incremental_claim":{"status":"YES","reason":"The removable porous basket can be tested contrastively against no enzyme, bare basket, matched soluble enzyme and the published recoverable-immobilisate approach, with rate, selectivity, leaching and multi-cycle activity outcomes.","source_ids":["S4","S5"]},"bounded_next_evidence_step":{"status":"YES","reason":"The proposed 18 sealed 100 mL batches form a bounded, randomized control-and-reuse experiment with containment and explicit empirical falsifiers.","source_ids":["S4","S6","S7","S8"]},"no_unresolved_safety_or_authority_stop":{"status":"UNCERTAIN","reason":"The protocol contains sensible containment and stop logic, but no named facility, feed contaminant dossier, enzyme-exposure assessment, waste classification, jurisdiction-specific requirements or written process-owner/EHS authorization was externally verified.","source_ids":[]},"credible_cost_scope_and_range":{"status":"UNCERTAIN","reason":"Commercial prices credibly anchor a small first experiment, but startup, operational-launch and recurring bands are resource-equivalent extrapolations without basket fabrication quotes, enzyme price, facility labor rates or purification and waste costs.","source_ids":["S7","S8"]}},"next_evidence_step":"After written process-owner, analytical-lead and EHS approval, run no more than 18 sealed 100 mL batches from one homogenized, independently characterized feed lot: randomized triplicates of no-enzyme, bare-basket, matched-initial-activity soluble-enzyme and fresh immobilized-basket conditions (12 batches), followed by three additional uses of the same enzyme basket, each paired with a bare-basket batch (6 batches). Pre-register time-to-specified conversion, complete soluble-product distribution, mass balance, enzyme leaching, basket integrity, retained activity, regeneration recovery, buffer/wash/energy use and downstream acceptance. Compare the basket both with soluble enzyme and with S4's pH-recoverable immobilisate performance. Falsify continuation if bare support explains the rate change; the basket fails to outperform no-enzyme/bare-basket conditions reproducibly; soluble enzyme meets the endpoint with lower total separation/resource burden; product specification or mass balance fails; enzyme or support leaches above the prevalidated analytical limit; or regenerated space-time yield/activity declines beyond the predeclared limit over reuse cycles.","blocking_evidence":["No external evidence that chemical bond cleavage is the end-to-end bottleneck at the unnamed textile-recycling pilot.","No basket-specific conversion, mass-transfer, fouling, leaching or sequential-regeneration data on the proposed fines.","No direct comparison with the already published pH-responsive reusable cutinase immobilisate.","No named adopter has committed to test or deploy the basket.","No written facility-specific authority, worker-safety, feed-contaminant or waste-disposal determination.","No quoted PET-hydrolase, custom-basket, analytical-labor, purification or recurring waste cost.","No lifecycle or process-resource comparison demonstrating that rinsing, buffers and catalyst production outperform soluble enzyme or competing pretreatment routes."],"research_disposition":"PARTNERED_RESEARCH_PROGRAM","world_novelty_boundary":"World novelty, patentability, freedom to operate, market size and realized impact were not measured. Within exactly eight direct sources, immobilized reusable PET hydrolases, repeated textile-PET hydrolysis in stirred tanks, mixed-textile enzymatic depolymerization and industrial enzymatic textile-PET processing are already visible. Only the mechanically removable porous-basket topology, its covalent-retention implementation for micronized PET-rich textile fines and its proposed comparative operating envelope remain untested in this review; absence from these eight sources is not evidence of worldwide novelty.","arm":"COMPLETE_PROPOSAL_PORTFOLIO","candidate_version":0,"controller_recommendation":{"action":"STOP_EMPIRICAL_RESEARCH_NEEDED","repairable":false,"material_progress_observed":true,"progress_targets":["Obtain named process-owner, analytical-lead and EHS authorization for the exact feed, enzyme, support, reactor and containment protocol.","Freeze the basket geometry, immobilization chemistry, initial active-enzyme loading, feed specification, analytical limits and regeneration/retirement thresholds.","Execute the preregistered 18-batch trial with no-enzyme, bare-basket, soluble-enzyme and sequential-reuse comparators.","Test whether basket performance remains attributable after accounting for mixing, adsorption, feed accessibility, wash/buffer use, enzyme loss and downstream purification work.","Compare the basket directly with the published pH-responsive recoverable immobilisate or document why that comparator is infeasible.","Produce a facility-specific scale-up mass, energy, water, labor, enzyme-lifetime and waste-cost model with vendor quotes."],"reason":"Bounded web research establishes a real problem and interested industrial actors, but also reveals substantial prior-art collision and a direct warning that solid porous immobilization can destroy PET accessibility and reuse performance. The remaining claim depends on physical basket/feed behavior, facility authority and measured multi-cycle economics that cannot be resolved by further web search; it requires a controlled live experiment."},"proposal_index":1}