Project description
Innovative recycling technology to combat plastic pollution
Plastic pollution is bad for the environment and hinders its ability to adapt to climate change. The EU-funded OpenLOOP project has a solution. It will use a chemical recycling clean technology to effectively degrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic and cellulose waste, creating valuable feedstock in the process. The technology is comprised of proprietary processing steps, including enzymatic hydrolysis to separate PET and cellulose, neutral hydrolysis to depolymerise PET, recycled terephthalic acid purification, dehydration to extract 5 hydroxymethylfurfural and levulinic acid, and finally, purification of these compounds. The project aims to develop the technology integrating it into an industrial setting, automating the procedures, validating its effectiveness, engineering process steps for optimal productivity, designing commercial packages, and developing a sustainable supply chain.
Objective
OpenLOOP is delivering a novel chemical recycling technology that:
- Can be used to degrade any mixture and blend of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic and CELLULOSE waste.
- As a final output yields high-value feedstock: 5-HMF (5-hydroxymethylfurfural), LA (Levulinic acid) H2 (hydrogen) and rTA (recycled Terephthalic Acid).
- Is clean and can be successfully implemented in industrial environment.
The OpenLOOP technology consists of several IOSs proprietary processing steps involving chemical procedures: enzymatic hydrolysis to separate PET and CELLULOSE, neutral hydrolysis to depolymerise PET, rTA purification, dehydration to extract 5-HMF and finally, 5-HMF and LA purification.
In the OpenLOOP project we intend to mature the technology, integrate it into industrial environment IOSs DEMO plant, automate procedures to make them safe and simple to operate, validate it, engineer process steps to deliver optimal productivity, design commercial packages, develop the supply chain
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-EIC-ACC-BF - HORIZON EIC Accelerator Blended FinanceCoordinator
2000 Maribor
Slovenia
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.