While plastics offer undeniable benefits, their exponential growth in production has raised concerns about resource depletion and pollution. Efforts to address the end-of-life challenges of plastics have been hindered by low recycling rates and inadequate waste management systems. Only a fraction of plastic waste is recycled globally, with a significant portion ending up in landfills or polluting natural environments. The persistence of plastic waste, coupled with its widespread contamination of oceans, freshwater systems, and terrestrial habitats, underscores the urgent need for solutions to mitigate its environmental impact. In response to these challenges, emerging circular plastics technologies, particularly chemical recycling, offer promising avenues for transforming plastic waste into valuable resources. Chemical recycling methods, including pyrolysis, depolymerization, and open-loop recycling, present opportunities to break down plastics into fuels, chemicals, and monomers, thus closing the loop on plastic production and consumption.
This book provides an overview of emerging chemical recycling technologies, focusing on advancements in pyrolysis, depolymerization, and open-loop recycling processes. Highlighting notable technological innovations and industry efforts to commercialize these methods, the book serves as a guide to understanding the potential of chemical recycling in addressing the plastic waste crisis.
Dr. Kat Knauer is a polymer scientist who has dedicated her scientific career to solving the plastic waste problem. She has a PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering from the University of Southern Mississippi and completed the BASF PhD Leadership Development Program (LDP) in 2018 before taking a Senior Scientist role in BASF's Plastics Division. Currently, Dr. Knauer is a senior researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics our of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE) Consortium where she is developing sustainable technologies to chemically upcycle today's existing plastic waste streams and develop new plastics for the future that are recyclable by design. Additionally, Dr. Knauer is an adjoint professor in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Corresponding author publications:
- DesVeaux, J.; Uekert, T.; Curley, J.; Choi, H.; Liang, Y.; Singh, A.; Mante, O.; Beckham, G.; Jacobsen, A.; Knauer, K.M. Economic and environmental impacts of strategies to chemically recycle mixed polyester waste. Submitted and in revision.
- Knauer, K.M.; Lee, M. Circular plastics technologies: open loop recycling of waste plastics into new chemicals. Phys. Sci. Rev. 2023.
- Knauer, K.M.; Higginson, C.; Liang, Y.; Lee, M. Circular plastics technologies: depolymerization of polymers into parent monomers. Phys. Sci. Rev. 2023.
- Knauer, K.M.; Higginson, C.; Lee, M. Pyrolysis of plastics to fuels and chemicals. Phys. Sci. Rev. 2023.
- Westlie, A.H.; Chen, E.; Holland, C.M.; Stahl, S.; Doyle, M.; Trenor, S.; Knauer, K.M. Polyolefin Innovations toward Circularity and Sustainable Alternatives. Macro. Rap. Comm. 2022, 2200492.
- Knauer, K.M. Chemical Recycling of Commodity Plastics. Energy Transition: Climate Action and Circularity. American Chemical Society Books, 567-585, 2022.
- Knauer, K.M.; Speros, J.C.; Kemp, L.K.; Savin, D.A.; Bao, Z.; Coates, G.W.; Epps T.E.; Hawker, C.J.; Le Roy, J.; Morse, M.; Yu, O. Entrepreneurship in Polymer Chemistry. ACS Macro Lett. 2021, 10, 864-872.
Co-author publications:
- Megill, M.; Shaw, K.; Knauer, K.M.; Seeley, M.; Lynch, J. Plastic additives in the ocean: Use of a comprehensive database for meta-analysis and method development. Submitted and in review.
- Quinn. E.; Knauer, K.M.; Beckham, G.B.; Chen, E.Y.-X. Mono-material product design with bio-based, circular, and biodegradable polymers. One Earth, 2023, 6.
- Uekert, T.; Singh, A.; DesVeaux, J.S.; Ghosh, T.; Bhatt, A.; Yadav, G.; Afzal, S.; Walzberg, J.; Knauer, K.M.; Nicholson, S.R.; Beckham, G.T.; Carpenter, A.C. Technical, Economic, and Environmental Comparison of Closed- Loop Recycling Technologies for Common Plastics. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2023, 11, 3.
- Liang, Y.; Knauer, K.M. Trends and future outlooks in circularity of desalination membrane materials. Front. In Mem. Sci. and Tech. 2023, 2, 1169158.
- Lynch, J.; Knauer, K.M.; Shaw, K. Plastic Additives in the Ocean. Plastics and the Ocean: Origin, Characterization, Fate, and Impacts. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 43-76, 2022.
Awards & honors:
- Green Chemistry Emerging Investigator - Article will be published August 2024
- NREL High Impact Award - December 2023
- NREL Business Development Platinum Award - December 2023
- OEDIT Advanced Industries Accelerator Award - October 2023
- NREL Outstanding Post-Doc Mentor Award - April 2023
- ISS Sustainability Challenge Grant - July 2022
- DARPA Grant, BAA HR001119S0084 - January 2020
- Beyond Benign Chemist Invent Green - November 2019
