[CCoE Notice] Materials Science and Engineering Seminar: Paschaolis Alexandridis, "Unlocking Value from Plastics with Advanced Sorting and Molecular Recycling"

[Greenwell, Stephen J]

[cid:image001.jpg at 01DB7EC5.D05FFBD0]MSE Seminar: February 21, 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
W122 Engineering 1

Paschalis Alexandridis
UB Distinguished Professor
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
University at Buffalo



Unlocking Value from Plastics with Advanced Sorting and Molecular Recycling
Plastics are widely used across industries such as food, beverage, textile, healthcare, automotive, aerospace, construction, agriculture, and petroleum. The annual production of plastics currently stands at half a trillion pounds. However, following their use, the great majority of plastics are landfilled or released into the environment, and only a small fraction of plastics is being recycled, about 5% in the US. Ample room exists for improving the current situation, so that we continue to benefit from the useful properties of plastics but reduce their undesirable impacts.

The presentation will start with an overview of plastic waste management, point to current concerns of plastics contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and littering the land and the oceans, and update on policies aimed to tackle plastic pollution. Recent research advances will be highlighted in the automated identification of plastic type for mechanical recycling, where spectroscopy data are analyzed with machine learning, and in solvent-based molecular recycling of plastics, whereby polymers are selectively dissolved and precipitated to achieve separation and recovery. Because the polymer chains do not break, this presents a promising, low-greenhouse gas and low-energy methodology for recycling plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled, including multilayer films, blends and composites.


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