Carbon-neutral pathways of recycling marine plastic waste

海洋中的塑料污染对海洋生物造成严重损害，并引发了日益严重的全球环境问题。对海洋生物的危害和对生态系统的污染正在破坏我们的海洋，并对人类健康造成负面影响。根据欧盟立法研究，估计每年有 9 至 2300 万吨塑料进入海洋，相关成本在 4.85 亿欧元至 12.59 亿欧元之间。最近的 Covid-19 大流行导致对一次性塑料的需求大幅增加，加剧了长期存在的海洋废物问题，预计 2020 年将有 15.6 亿个口罩进入海洋，2021 年甚至更多。该项目旨在开发可持续、可扩展且有利可图的海洋塑料废物管理流程。自动化塑料废物管理和产品创新流程旨在实现环境可持续性。世界领先的科学家小组将通过15个研究机构之间总计160人月的结构化人员交流，开展广泛的培训和知识交流活动。该小组的科学家有着共同的目标，即开发用于海洋塑料废物回收的CUPOLA工艺。热和热化学转化技术将用于生产高价值的适销产品。将进行全流程建模、技术经济和生命周期分析，以提供有关新流程可行性的重要信息。CUPOLA 将创建一个由流程工程师、化学家、环境科学家和流程建模师组成的多学科联盟，开发创新且经济的废物转化为产品的流程，缩小循环经济的差距。它将在多元文化、跨学科和跨部门环境中为职业发展、跨部门经验和学术培训提供多种途径，并最终实现可持续发展目标 3、12 和 14。

Plastic pollution in the ocean causes severe damage to marine life and raises growing global environmental concerns. The harm to marine life and pollution to the ecosystem is devastating our oceans and is causing negative connections to human health. According to EU Legislation Research, an estimated 9 to 23 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year, and the associated cost is between 485 million Euro and 1,259 million Euro. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in demand for single-use plastic, aggravating the long-lasting marine waste problem with an estimated 1.56 billion face masks have entered oceans in 2020 and even more in 2021. This project aims to develop sustainable, scalable, and profitable waste management processes for marine plastics. The automated plastic waste management and product innovation processes aim for environmental sustainability. Extensive training and knowledge exchange activities will be carried out among the world-leading scientist group through a total of 160person-months of structured staff exchanges between 15 research institutes.The scientists in this group share the common objective to develop the CUPOLA processes for marine plastic waste recycling. Thermal and thermochemical conversion technologies will be applied to produce high-value marketable products. Full process modelling, techno-economic and life cycle analysis will be carried out to provide vital information about the feasibility of the novel process.CUPOLA will create a multi-disciplinary consortium consisting of process engineers, chemists, environmental scientists, and process modellers, and develop the innovative and economic waste-to-product process, closing the gap in the circular economy. It will produce multiple avenues for career development, cross-sectorial experience, and academic training in a multi-cultural, interdisciplinary and intersectoral environment, and lead to achieving SDGs 3, 12 and 14.