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Upcycling plastic wastes: biopolymers for a circular economy

Projektbeschreibung

Ist für den Einmalgebrauch bestimmte persönliche Schutzausrüstung aus Kunststoff recycelbar?

Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat aufgrund des vermehrten Gebrauchs von persönlicher Einweg-Schutzausrüstung wie Masken, Handschuhen und Einwegkunststoffartikeln die Kunststoffmüllberge wachsen lassen. In diesem Kontext wird sich das EU-finanzierte Projekt BIOP auf Einwegartikel aus Polyethylen und Polypropylen konzentrieren, die zu hochwertigen leichteren Molekülen upgecycelt werden können. Diese können wiederum als Bausteine für die Synthese neuer biobasierter polymerer Einheiten in Kombination mit spezifischen, aus Biomasse gewonnenen Plattformchemikalien dienen. Das Projekt ebnet einer Kreislaufwirtschaft den Weg. Resultat wird die Verwertung von Kunststoff- und Biomasseabfällen bei der Herstellung von Biopolymeren sein.

Ziel

BIOP aims to address one of the most critical environmental issues derived from human activities, plastic wastes. Far from having a suitable alternative to palliate their impact and promote their recyclability, the emerged pandemic alarm associated to the fast coronavirus (COVID-19) spreading worsens detrimentally the scenario. Disposable Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) used by healthcare professionals produces vast quantities of plastic waste, being worthwhile to develop biodegradable PPE for the future, which would allow alternative ways to process this waste. In addition, it is reasonably urgent to propose an efficient alternative to handle the giant amount of non-biodegradable plastics already generated (mainly protective suits, boot covers and single-use gloves). The project focuses mostly on single-use polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) recycling into lighter value-added molecules (upcycling) that can be used as building blocks to synthetize new biobased polymeric units, in combination with specific biomass-derived platform chemicals such as 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). Hence, going through the plastics to bioplastics concept, the project’s guiding light is the joint valorization of plastic and biomass wastes to finally produce BIOPolymers, approach that add value to both wastes thus paving the way towards a circular economy. With this purpose, the project’s specific challenges concerns 1) PE/PP conversion to lower molecular weight alkenes through the development of specific processes and highly selective catalysts, 2) 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF, biomass platform molecule) transformation to FDCA over the new designed and optimized catalysts and 3) joint conversion of alkenes (derived from plastics) and HMF (one-pot oxidation) thus allowing cost savings and technologies coupling.

Koordinator

UNIVERSIDAD DE SEVILLA
Netto-EU-Beitrag
€ 160 932,48
Adresse
CALLE S. FERNANDO 4
41004 Sevilla
Spanien

Auf der Karte ansehen

Region
Sur Andalucía Sevilla
Aktivitätstyp
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Gesamtkosten
€ 160 932,48