Asahi Group Holdings Co., Ltd.
Asahi Quality and Innovations Co., Ltd.

Asahi Group Holdings Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Tokyo, President Atsushi Katsuki: hereinafter AGH), the independent research subsidiary Asahi Quality and Innovations Co., Ltd. (President Koji Nagatomi: hereinafter AQI), together with Synthetic Gestalt Co., Ltd. (President Kohki Shimada, hereinafter Synthetic Gestalt) and the National University Corporation Tokyo University of Science (Chairman Naoto Otake, hereinafter Science Tokyo), will begin research on AI technology-based PET bottle decomposition technology "Bio-recycling" starting in the latter half of 2024. This research aims to contribute to reducing environmental impact and costs compared to traditional PET recycling methods.

"Bio-recycling" is a method of creating new PET resin by returning PET material to an intermediate raw material before re-polymerization. Although it essentially involves a similar reaction to "Chemical Recycling"※1, it replaces the chemical decomposition process with enzymatic decomposition, utilizing biologically derived decomposing enzymes, which can significantly lower the reaction temperature, allowing recycling to be conducted at room temperature and pressure, thus potentially solving the challenges faced by traditional methods. The goal is to rapidly discover a new PETase (an enzyme that decomposes PET plastics) that can most efficiently decompose PET material and establish "Bio-recycling."
※1: A method of forming new PET resin by returning to an intermediate raw material through chemical decomposition. The collected used PET bottles are sorted, crushed, and cleaned to remove impurities before depolymerization is conducted.
After sorting, crushing, and washing to remove impurities, PET resin is decomposed into raw materials or intermediate raw materials, which are then purified and polymerized to create new PET resin.
This involves decomposing and purifying used PET bottles to raw materials or intermediate raw materials to create new PET resin.

This research involves AQI, Science Tokyo which has an academic foundation, and SyntheticGestalt which possesses cutting-edge AI technology.
AQI, being an independent research subsidiary of the group, will utilize insights from business companies such as Asahi Beverages to evaluate market needs and business challenges related to PETase obtained in this research, aiming for practical application.
The Asahi Group has set the "Asahi Carbon Zero" initiative as a medium to long-term goal for climate change, aiming for "net zero" CO2 emissions by 2040 in Scope 1, 2, and Scope 3. Additionally, the Asahi Group, which operates a beverage business, is aiming to switch all PET bottles to 100% recycled materials and bio-based materials by 2030, given they distribute a substantial amount of PET bottles. This research is an important initiative towards achieving those goals.
Using its AI technology, SyntheticGestalt has a track record of discovering many unknown enzymes, including the second instance worldwide of the novel MHETase (an enzyme essential for the biorecycling of PET bottles) and four new types of PETase (enzymes that degrade PET plastics). In this research, they will utilize their improved AI technology, which expands the teaching data by five times, to explore high-performance and high-value-added new PETase from a gene library of 0.25 billion conditions. The company has been selected as an adopter for GENIAC, a domestic foundational model development support program by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and NEDO, and is developing the largest molecular-based AI model in the world. It is also selected for J-Startup of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and is working on this research with a multinational team from Japan and the UK.
Note: Data that adds problems and answers for AI training.
Fujishima Laboratory and Terasaka Laboratory at Science Tokyo Earth Life Research Institute will handle experiments (wet lab) and evaluations, leveraging the achievements cultivated mainly in the research of molecular evolutionary engineering. Both laboratories have the technology to select proteins with specific functions from millions of conditions and further modify them, promoting the project through cutting-edge experimental techniques and academic perspectives.

Currently, it is said that there are billions of types of enzymes in nature, but many of them have not had their functions elucidated, and it is believed that there are numerous unknown enzymes that are superior in functionality compared to known enzymes.
This research aims to efficiently discover new PETase enzymes that have never been known to humanity through the use of AI. AI analysis rapidly identifies promising enzyme candidate sequences from vast genetic data, enabling exploration of new enzymes at a speed previously impossible. This approach is expected to realize low-impact recycling technology for PET bottles.
The three parties have already newly discovered 10 types of promising PETase candidates, confirming through experiments that they possess certain degradation capabilities. In the future, the experimental team at Science Tokyo will further validate these candidates and advance the selection and modification of enzymes, anticipating the discovery of even more innovative enzymes for the practical application of the technology. Through these efforts, the goal is to develop PETase with the level of activity necessary to operate a demonstration plant scale by 2026.