Power and Beauty Entwined: Accelerating Chemistry Research with Modern Tools

A novel method for recycling PLA using low-temperature, low-pressure reactions with alcohol or water has recently been developed. PLA is used today in many applications ranging from food packaging to implantable medical devices. Because of its sensitivity to thermal degradation, PLA is difficult to recycle and actually becomes a contaminant in the plastics stream of municipal solid waste. Using the newly discovered process, different grades of PLA can be removed from a stream of commingled plastics and broken down to give high value chemicals. Some of these chemicals, called monomers, can be purified and used as feedstock to synthesize virgin PLA resin, thereby “closing the loop” on the PLA life cycle. This result is achieved by carrying out depolymerization reactions while the PLA is in solution.

With demand for chemicals growing at a much faster rate than the demand for transportation fuels, companies are exploring opportunities to configure their complex refineries into COTC plants. In lieu of producing transportation fuels, these COTC plants can convert crude oil directly to chemical feedstocks.

Before marketing a new chemical, the manufacturer/importer, in order to meet the various national and international legal requirements, has to submit information in the form of a notification or registration (e.g. phys-chem, toxicological, ecotoxicological data) to support each Government’s risk assessment to determine whether the substance poses an unreasonable risk to the environment and/or human health. Some countries require pre-manufacture/import notification while for many jurisdictions, the chemical notification process is a tiered system requiring subsequent notifications as the annual amount of the imported or manufactured substance increases. Further, there are expanding global initiatives to assess chemicals already in the marketplace and subsequently take action on any chemicals found to be harmful to human health and/or the environment.

Current discussions about addressing the climate crisis generally focus on decarbonization related to the use of fossil fuel primarily in the energy and transportation sectors.