EFRI E3P: Plastics Recycling Processes by Integrating Mechanocatalytic Depolymerization, Monomer Purification, and Consumer Behavior

这个多学科团队将通过开发将塑料转化为有价值的化学品的新方法和相关的消费战略，解决在垃圾填埋场和环境中积累塑料废物的问题-这是一个迅速出现的国家和全球问题。该项目将研究和开发一种通过在固相中施加机械力(例如，在球磨机中)以零/最小溶剂使用量来分解聚合物的过程。利用纳米多孔材料，根据大小、形状或特定的相互作用分离分子，将实现高能效的化学产品回收和提纯。过程系统建模将确定将这些技术单元集成到可行的工业过程中的关键要求。与此同时，消费者行为研究将揭示激励消费者提供适当塑料流的方法，并提高公众对拟议产品的接受度。因此，技术创新和行为/物流洞察将被整合到指导长期经济决策的流程和供应链级别的模型中。这一框架极有可能成为设想和设计塑料回收系统的变革性范式改变。该项目开展了一系列教育和外联活动，包括通过协作教学模块开发将循环经济概念注入佐治亚理工学院课程，以及通过可持续化学过程在线讲座档案馆向世界各地用户广泛传播这些概念。该EFRI项目将创建一个综合过程战略，通过在过程系统建模和供应链和消费者行为分析的指导下，将塑料废物转化为单体或其他有价值的分子产品，通过机械催化解聚和节能分离相结合。这一框架是未来炼油厂概念的核心，这些炼油厂将(例如在球磨机中)机械催化转化废物原料，以产生可调的原油产品流，其中包含用于生产新鲜塑料的单体和/或用于升级到更有价值产品的低聚中间体。机械催化反应使用机械冲击能(而不是热)来驱动化学反应，并提供固体催化剂和原料之间的紧密接触，从而实现无溶剂反应。解聚产品将用新的高能效膜和吸附器进行溶解、分级和提纯，这是大幅降低总体工艺成本的关键。消费者行为研究将揭示激励消费者提供合适塑料流的方法，并提高公众对拟议产品的接受度。我们将把我们的技术创新和行为/物流洞察整合到流程和供应链级别的模型中，以指导长期经济决策。该团队将通过针对塑料回收谜题的关键维度来整合这些努力，并融合我们的新知识，以打造经济上可行和可持续的流程，并培养具有多学科背景的新一代专业人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This multidisciplinary team will tackle the problem of accumulating plastics waste in landfills and the environment – a rapidly emerging national and global issue - by developing new approaches to convert plastics into valuable chemicals and related consumer strategies. This project will investigate and develop a process that breaks down polymers by application of mechanical forces (e.g., in a ball mill) in the solid phase with zero/minimal solvent use. Energy-efficient recovery and purification of the chemical products will be achieved using nanoporous materials that separate molecules based upon size, shape, or specific interactions. Process systems modeling will identify the key requirements for integrating these technological units into viable industrial processes. At the same time, consumer behavior studies will reveal means of motivating consumers to provide suitable plastics streams and increase public acceptance of the proposed products. Thus, technological innovations and behavioral/logistical insights will be integrated into process and supply chain-level models that guide long-term economic decision-making. This framework has great potential to be a transformative paradigm change in how plastics recycling systems are envisaged and designed. The project features a number of educational and outreach activities, including the infusion of circular economy concepts into the Georgia Tech curriculum through collaborative teaching module development as well as wider dissemination of these concepts through an online Lecture Archive for Sustainable Chemical Processes accessible to worldwide users.This EFRI project will create an integrated process strategy for converting plastic waste into its monomers or other valuable molecular products, through a combination of mechanocatalytic depolymerization and energy-efficient separations guided by process systems modeling and analysis of supply chains and consumer behavior. This framework is central to the concept of future refineries that will convert waste feedstocks mechanocatalytically (e.g., in ball mills), to generate tunable crude product streams containing monomers for production of fresh plastics and/or oligomeric intermediates for upcycling to more valuable products. Mechanocatalytic reactions use mechanical impact energy (rather than heat) to drive chemical reactions and provide intimate contact between solid catalysts and feedstocks allowing for solvent-free reactions. Depolymerization products will be solubilized, fractionated, and purified with new, energy-efficient membranes and adsorbers, which are key for achieving large reductions in overall process costs. Consumer behavior studies will reveal means of motivating consumers to provide suitable plastics streams and increase public acceptance of the proposed products. We will integrate our technological innovations and behavioral/logistical insights together into process and supply chain-level models that guide long-term economic decision-making. The team will integrate these efforts by targeting key dimensions of the plastics recycling puzzle, and convergently integrate our new knowledge to forge an economically viable and sustainable process and to educate a new generation of professionals with a multidisciplinary background.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.