Huber<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Van Lehn<\/p>\n<\/div>\n By using a series of solvent washes guided by thermodynamic calculations of polymer solubility, UW\u2013Madison professors of chemical and biological engineering\u00a0George Huber<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Reid Van Lehn<\/a>\u00a0and their students used the STRAP process to separate the polymers in a commercial plastic composed of common layering materials polyethylene, ethylene vinyl alcohol, and polyethylene terephthalate.<\/p>\n The result? The separated polymers appear chemically similar to those used to make the original film.<\/p>\n The team now hopes to use the recovered polymers to create new plastic materials, demonstrating that the process can help close the recycling loop. In particular, it could allow multilayer-plastic manufacturers to recover the 40 percent of plastic waste produced during the production and packaging processes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve demonstrated this with one multilayer plastic,\u201d says Huber. \u201cWe need to try other multilayer plastics and we need to scale this technology.\u201d<\/p>\n The goal is to eventually develop a computational system that will allow researchers to find solvent combinations to recycle all sorts of multilayer plastics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As the complexity of the multilayer plastics increases, so does the difficulty of identifying solvents that can dissolve each polymer. That\u2019s why STRAP relies on a computational approach used by Van Lehn called the Conductor-like Screening Model for Realistic Solvents (COSMO-RS) to guide the process.<\/p>\n COSMO-RS is able to calculate the solubility of target polymers in solvent mixtures at varying temperatures, narrowing down the number of potential solvents that could dissolve a polymer. The team can then experimentally explore the candidate solvents.<\/p>\n \u201cThis allows us to tackle these much more complex systems, which is necessary if you\u2019re actually going to make a dent in the recycling world,\u201d says Van Lehn.<\/p>\n The goal is to eventually develop a computational system that will allow researchers to find solvent combinations to recycle all sorts of multilayer plastics. The team also hopes to look at the environmental impact of the solvents it uses and establish a database of green solvents that will allow them to better balance the efficacy, cost and environmental impact of various solvent systems.<\/p>\n The project stems from UW\u2013Madison\u2019s expertise in catalysis. For decades, the university\u2019s chemical and biological engineering researchers have pioneered solvent-based reactions to convert biomass \u2014 like wood or agricultural waste \u2014 into useful chemicals or fuel precursors. Much of that expertise translates into solvent-based polymer recycling as well.<\/p>\n The team is continuing its research on STRAP processing through the newly established Multi-University Center on Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics, directed by Huber. Researchers in the $12.5 million U.S. Department of Energy-funded center are investigating several chemical pathways for recovering and recycling polymers.<\/p>\n THIS RESEARCH WAS SUPPORTED BY A GRANT FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DE-SC0018409).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Multilayer plastic materials are ubiquitous in food and medical supply packaging, particularly since the specific properties of layered polymers can keep moisture from fouling sterile syringes or light and oxygen from making potato chips stale. But despite their utility, those ever-present plastics are impossible to recycle using conventional methods. About 100 million tons of multilayer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[103],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-5665","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-madison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/5665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=5665"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=5665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/news.wisc.edu\/content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/george_huber-e1605905695326.jpg\")
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