US Patent Issued to Kimberly-Clark Worldwide on March 17 for "Optimization of a halophilic PHB depolymerase for industrial applications" (Georgia Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,577,364, issued on March 17, was assigned to Kimberly-Clark Worldwide Inc. (Neenah, Wis.).

"Optimization of a halophilic PHB depolymerase for industrial applications" was invented by Stephen Quirk (Alpharetta, Ga.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to a method for treatment of poly hydroxy alkanoate (PHA) containing post-consumer product, the method comprising contacting a post-consumer product with a polypeptide that can catalyze degradation of the PHA, the contact taking place at a temperature at least 40deg C. and in the presence of salt at a concentration of 1 M or greater. In a specific embodiment, the pol...