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Chemical Recycling

Education and Workforce Development on Chemical Recycling of Plastics

Education and Workforce Development on Chemical Recycling of Plastics

This project seeks to develop practitioner & expert level training in chemical recycling of plastics to educate, train, & develop the incumbent workforce for careers in Re-X, content will be prepared for both in-person and online delivery. The learning objectives include; to understand the state-of-the-art of various chemical recycling technologies, understand the product output for each type of chemical recycling process, understand the post-processing requirements needed to recover and separate products from a product state and to purify, modify and/or upgrade products to meet market requirements, understand the primary mechanisms for integrating the chemical recycling technologies into the supply chain for the products and co-products generated by the process, and understand the critical factors that affect the technical performance and costs of alternative chemical recycling process technologies.

The target audience for practitioner level training is intended for incumbent workers that currently work with Re-X technologies or in adjacent technology domains who wish to broaden their knowledge. Expert level training is intended to provide in-depth coverage of advanced Re-X concepts or technology and is targeted toward engineers or scientists trying to deepen their expertise.

Project Team:
University at Buffalo (UB), Resource Recycling Systems (RRS)

21-01-EWD-5074

Chemical Recycling of Mixed PET/Polyolefin Streams Through Sequential Pyrolysis and Catalytic Upgrading

Chemical Recycling of Mixed PET/Polyolefin Streams Through Sequential Pyrolysis and Catalytic Upgrading

This project seeks to convert mixed plastics waste to re-usable products through the development of catalysts to convert polymer pyrolysis products to BTX and olefins. The feedstock for the proposed two-stage process (pyrolysis followed by catalytic upgrading of the pyrolysis products to BTX and olefins) is a mix of PET and PP waste plastics.

Project Team:
The Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Northwestern University, Shaw Group Industries, Inc., Process Systems Enterprise, Inc. - A Siemens Business

20-01-RR-4034

Chemical Recycling of Mixed Plastics and Valuable Metals in the Electronic Waste Using Solvent-Based Processing

Chemical Recycling of Mixed Plastics and Valuable Metals in the Electronic Waste Using Solvent-Based Processing

This project seeks to demonstrate the potential of solvent-based extraction process to recover plastics mixed metals and plastics electronic waste (e‐waste) for cross-industry reuse. Following extraction of the plastics, the mixed-stream would be primarily metals. The plastics would be recovered from the process solvent using an anti-solvent. If successful, this project will significantly increase the recycling rates of e-waste, and the recovery of plastics and metals from this source material. The potential energy savings and emission reduction from this project are estimated at 16PJ per year and 334,000 MT of CO2eq. per year.

Project Team:
University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Sunnking, Inc., Institute of Scrap Recycling

18-02-RR-17