Expanding Plastics Recycling Technologies: Chemical Aspects, Technology Status and Challenges

Houqian Li; Horacio Aguirre-Villegas; Robert Allen; Xianglan Bai; Craig Benson; Gregg Beckham; Sabrina Bradshaw; Jessica Brown; Robert Brown; Victor Cecon; Julia Curley; Greg Curtzwiler; Son Dong; Soumika Gaddameedi; John Garcia; Ive Hermans; Min Kim; Jiaze Ma; Lesli Mark; Manos Mavrikakis; Olumide Olafasakin; Tim Osswald; Konstantinos Papanikolaou; Harish Radhakrishnan; Marco Antonio Sanchez Castillo; Kevin Sanchez-Rivera; Khairun Tumu; Reid Van Lehn; Keith Horst; Mark Wright; Jiayang Wu; Victor Zavala; Panzheng Zhou; George Huber

doi:10.1039/D2GC02588D

Expanding Plastics Recycling Technologies: Chemical Aspects, Technology Status and Challenges

Houqian Li, Horacio Aguirre-Villegas, Robert Allen, Xianglan Bai, Craig Benson, Gregg Beckham, Sabrina Bradshaw, Jessica Brown, Robert Brown, Victor Cecon, Julia Curley, Greg Curtzwiler, Son Dong, Soumika Gaddameedi, John Garcia, Ive Hermans, Min Kim, Jiaze Ma, Lesli Mark, Manos MavrikakisOlumide Olafasakin, Tim Osswald, Konstantinos Papanikolaou, Harish Radhakrishnan, Marco Antonio Sanchez Castillo, Kevin Sanchez-Rivera, Khairun Tumu, Reid Van Lehn, Keith Horst, Mark Wright, Jiayang Wu, Victor Zavala, Panzheng Zhou, George Huber

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

206 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Less than 10% of the plastics generated globally are recycled, while the rest are incinerated, accumulated in landfills, or leak into the environment. New technologies are emerging to chemically recycle waste plastics that are receiving tremendous interest from academia and industry. Chemists and chemical engineers need to understand the fundamentals of these technologies to design improved systems for chemical recycling and upcycling of waste plastics. In this paper, we review the entire life cycle of plastics and options for the management of plastic waste to address barriers to industrial chemical recycling and further provide perceptions on possible opportunities with such materials. Knowledge and insights to enhance plastic recycling beyond its current scale are provided. Outstanding research problems and where researchers in the field should focus their efforts in the future are also discussed.

Original language	American English
Pages (from-to)	8899-9002
Number of pages	104
Journal	Green Chemistry
Volume	24
Issue number	23
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1039/D2GC02588D https://doi.org/10.1039/d2gc02588d
State	Published - 2022

Bibliographical note

See NREL/JA-2A00-82693 for preprint

NREL Publication Number

NREL/JA-2A00-84690

Keywords

commercial
decomposition
energy
plastics
recycling
waste

Access to Document

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy23osti/84690.pdf

Cite this

Li, H., Aguirre-Villegas, H., Allen, R., Bai, X., Benson, C., Beckham, G., Bradshaw, S., Brown, J., Brown, R., Cecon, V., Curley, J., Curtzwiler, G., Dong, S., Gaddameedi, S., Garcia, J., Hermans, I., Kim, M., Ma, J., Mark, L., ... Huber, G. (2022). Expanding Plastics Recycling Technologies: Chemical Aspects, Technology Status and Challenges. Green Chemistry, 24(23), 8899-9002. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2GC02588D, https://doi.org/10.1039/d2gc02588d

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title = "Expanding Plastics Recycling Technologies: Chemical Aspects, Technology Status and Challenges",

abstract = "Less than 10% of the plastics generated globally are recycled, while the rest are incinerated, accumulated in landfills, or leak into the environment. New technologies are emerging to chemically recycle waste plastics that are receiving tremendous interest from academia and industry. Chemists and chemical engineers need to understand the fundamentals of these technologies to design improved systems for chemical recycling and upcycling of waste plastics. In this paper, we review the entire life cycle of plastics and options for the management of plastic waste to address barriers to industrial chemical recycling and further provide perceptions on possible opportunities with such materials. Knowledge and insights to enhance plastic recycling beyond its current scale are provided. Outstanding research problems and where researchers in the field should focus their efforts in the future are also discussed.",

keywords = "commercial, decomposition, energy, plastics, recycling, waste",

author = "Houqian Li and Horacio Aguirre-Villegas and Robert Allen and Xianglan Bai and Craig Benson and Gregg Beckham and Sabrina Bradshaw and Jessica Brown and Robert Brown and Victor Cecon and Julia Curley and Greg Curtzwiler and Son Dong and Soumika Gaddameedi and John Garcia and Ive Hermans and Min Kim and Jiaze Ma and Lesli Mark and Manos Mavrikakis and Olumide Olafasakin and Tim Osswald and Konstantinos Papanikolaou and Harish Radhakrishnan and {Sanchez Castillo}, {Marco Antonio} and Kevin Sanchez-Rivera and Khairun Tumu and {Van Lehn}, Reid and Keith Horst and Mark Wright and Jiayang Wu and Victor Zavala and Panzheng Zhou and George Huber",

note = "See NREL/JA-2A00-82693 for preprint",

year = "2022",

doi = "10.1039/D2GC02588D",

language = "American English",

volume = "24",

pages = "8899--9002",

journal = "Green Chemistry",

issn = "1463-9262",

publisher = "Royal Society of Chemistry",

number = "23",

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Li, H, Aguirre-Villegas, H, Allen, R, Bai, X, Benson, C, Beckham, G, Bradshaw, S, Brown, J, Brown, R, Cecon, V, Curley, J, Curtzwiler, G, Dong, S, Gaddameedi, S, Garcia, J, Hermans, I, Kim, M, Ma, J, Mark, L, Mavrikakis, M, Olafasakin, O, Osswald, T, Papanikolaou, K, Radhakrishnan, H, Sanchez Castillo, MA, Sanchez-Rivera, K, Tumu, K, Van Lehn, R, Horst, K, Wright, M, Wu, J, Zavala, V, Zhou, P & Huber, G 2022, 'Expanding Plastics Recycling Technologies: Chemical Aspects, Technology Status and Challenges', Green Chemistry, vol. 24, no. 23, pp. 8899-9002. https://doi.org/10.1039/D2GC02588D, https://doi.org/10.1039/d2gc02588d

TY - JOUR

T1 - Expanding Plastics Recycling Technologies: Chemical Aspects, Technology Status and Challenges

AU - Li, Houqian

AU - Aguirre-Villegas, Horacio

AU - Allen, Robert

AU - Bai, Xianglan

AU - Benson, Craig

AU - Beckham, Gregg

AU - Bradshaw, Sabrina

AU - Brown, Jessica

AU - Brown, Robert

AU - Cecon, Victor

AU - Curley, Julia

AU - Curtzwiler, Greg

AU - Dong, Son

AU - Gaddameedi, Soumika

AU - Garcia, John

AU - Hermans, Ive

AU - Kim, Min

AU - Ma, Jiaze

AU - Mark, Lesli

AU - Mavrikakis, Manos

AU - Olafasakin, Olumide

AU - Osswald, Tim

AU - Papanikolaou, Konstantinos

AU - Radhakrishnan, Harish

AU - Sanchez Castillo, Marco Antonio

AU - Sanchez-Rivera, Kevin

AU - Tumu, Khairun

AU - Van Lehn, Reid

AU - Horst, Keith

AU - Wright, Mark

AU - Wu, Jiayang

AU - Zavala, Victor

AU - Zhou, Panzheng

AU - Huber, George

N1 - See NREL/JA-2A00-82693 for preprint

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Less than 10% of the plastics generated globally are recycled, while the rest are incinerated, accumulated in landfills, or leak into the environment. New technologies are emerging to chemically recycle waste plastics that are receiving tremendous interest from academia and industry. Chemists and chemical engineers need to understand the fundamentals of these technologies to design improved systems for chemical recycling and upcycling of waste plastics. In this paper, we review the entire life cycle of plastics and options for the management of plastic waste to address barriers to industrial chemical recycling and further provide perceptions on possible opportunities with such materials. Knowledge and insights to enhance plastic recycling beyond its current scale are provided. Outstanding research problems and where researchers in the field should focus their efforts in the future are also discussed.

AB - Less than 10% of the plastics generated globally are recycled, while the rest are incinerated, accumulated in landfills, or leak into the environment. New technologies are emerging to chemically recycle waste plastics that are receiving tremendous interest from academia and industry. Chemists and chemical engineers need to understand the fundamentals of these technologies to design improved systems for chemical recycling and upcycling of waste plastics. In this paper, we review the entire life cycle of plastics and options for the management of plastic waste to address barriers to industrial chemical recycling and further provide perceptions on possible opportunities with such materials. Knowledge and insights to enhance plastic recycling beyond its current scale are provided. Outstanding research problems and where researchers in the field should focus their efforts in the future are also discussed.

KW - commercial

KW - decomposition

KW - energy

KW - plastics

KW - recycling

KW - waste

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139554454&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1039/D2GC02588D

DO - 10.1039/D2GC02588D

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85139554454

SN - 1463-9262

VL - 24

SP - 8899

EP - 9002

JO - Green Chemistry

JF - Green Chemistry

IS - 23

ER -

Expanding Plastics Recycling Technologies: Chemical Aspects, Technology Status and Challenges

Abstract

Bibliographical note

NREL Publication Number

Keywords

Access to Document

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