{"id":61318,"date":"2019-03-12T07:20:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T06:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=61318"},"modified":"2019-03-06T14:24:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T13:24:57","slug":"nrel-pioneers-cleaner-route-to-upcycle-plastics-into-superior-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/nrel-pioneers-cleaner-route-to-upcycle-plastics-into-superior-products\/","title":{"rendered":"NREL Pioneers Cleaner Route to Upcycle Plastics into Superior Products"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have discovered a method of plastics upcycling\u2014transforming discarded products into new, high-value materials of better quality and environmental value\u2014that could economically incentivize the recycling of waste plastics and help solve one of the world\u2019s most looming pollution problems.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"20190226-beckham-47346\"
NREL Senior Research Fellow Gregg Beckham and Materials Scientist Nic Rorrer are working on a process of upcycling: breaking down PET in existing waste and combining it with compounds derived from biomass to make something more valuable, such as fiber-reinforced composite materials. Photo by Dennis Schroeder \/ NREL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Published in Joule<\/em>, \u201cCombining reclaimed PET with bio-based monomers enables plastics upcycling<\/a>,\u201d describes how the NREL team chemically combined reclaimed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, in the form of single-use beverage bottles, with bio-based compounds to produce higher-value fiber-reinforced plastics (FRPs) that can be used in products from snowboards to vehicle parts to wind turbines. Not only are the resulting composites worth more than double the original PET, the FRPs exhibit twice the strength and improved adhesion to fiberglass when compared to the standard petroleum-derived FRP.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost recycling today is downcycling\u2014there\u2019s very little financial motivation,\u201d said NREL Senior Research Fellow Gregg Beckham, one of the primary authors of the paper. \u201cKnowing that 26 million tons of PET are produced each year but only 30% of PET bottles are recycled in the United States, our findings represent a significant advancement in enabling the circular materials economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NREL team also included staff polymer researcher Nic Rorrer, who has previously worked with bio-based muconic acid and breaking down reclaimed PET. \u201cWe are excited to have developed a technology that incentivizes the economics of plastics reclamation,\u201d Rorrer said. \u201cThe ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of waste plastics in landfills and oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, this process is more energy efficient and less hazardous than standard manufacturing processes for petroleum-based FRPs. NREL performed a supply-chain analysis of the FRP materials and found substantial energy savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions when compared to the process for producing petroleum-based composites. This research represents a potential step forward in sustainable methods to upcycle plastics into long-lasting, high-performance materials that could boost recycling efforts throughout the world.<\/p>\n

The work reported in Joule was enabled by funding from NREL\u2019s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, with additional funding from the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE\u2019s) Bioenergy Technologies Office.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About NREL<\/h3>\n

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have discovered a method of plastics upcycling\u2014transforming discarded products into new, high-value materials of better quality and environmental value\u2014that could economically incentivize the recycling of waste plastics and help solve one of the world\u2019s most looming pollution problems. Published in Joule, \u201cCombining reclaimed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,11966,10453,15515],"supplier":[371,11236],"class_list":["post-61318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-plastics","tag-recycling","tag-upcycling","supplier-national-renewable-energy-laboratory-nrel","supplier-u-s-department-of-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61318"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=61318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}