Post by Tilly Van Hecke

After months of working on my Master’s thesis, I am proud to share with you that I can close up this big chapter in my studies as a bioengineer! 🧪 For my thesis “Development of a fermentative enzyme production and coupled enzymatic plastic waste recycling process to produce new polymer building blocks”, I helped optimising the fermentation process, analysed the activity of our produced enzyme in different conditions and started up some enzymatic PET waste degradation experiments, where monomers of post-consumer PET were being obtained. ♻️ I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to this amazing European REPurpose project and no place would have been a better match for me than Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant. 🧬 My thesis would not have been the same without the help, support, guidance and enthusiasm of my wonderful colleagues. I want to thank Ilaria Mazzini especially for being such a kind, patient and positive person. I couldn’t have wished for a better tutor. ✨ Also a big shoutout to Cedric Vander Cruyssen and Delphine Devriese for your feedback and making this work something to be proud of. Lastly, thanks to my promotors Wim Soetaert and Christian Stevens, the jury members Maarten Van Brempt and Marcella Souza & also Matthias D'hooghe and Thomas Heugebaert for guiding the final defence. 📄 On to the next chapter!