(178f) Current Trends and Future Plastics
AIChE Annual Meeting
2020
2020 Virtual AIChE Annual Meeting
Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division
Catalytic Upcycling of Waste Plastics
Monday, November 16, 2020 - 9:00am to 9:15am
Biopolymers that possess an intrinsically negative carbon footprint are mainly derived from plant-based resources that must be first transformed into polymerizable forms (monomers). The question arises: can monomers/polymers still be considered renewable after many conversion steps away from the renewable resource to produce bioplastics similar to fossil-driven plastics, also referred to as dropâin plastics? Also, even if originally made from renewable resources, these plastic products are usually nonâbiodegradable as they have the same technical properties as their fossil fuel-based counterparts. Thus, t, future plastics from renewable sources should minimize the number of transformation steps, maximize the conversion and atom efficiencies of each step, and apply âgreenerâ conditions and catalytic reactions. In addition, future research should emphasize the design of performance-advantaged, degradable and environmentally benign or recyclable-upcyclable plant-based polymers.