Polymers play a vital role in our lives, as plastic materials are used in healthcare, energy, electronics, security, transport and sustainable development. Nevertheless, the whole value chain connected to polymers has come under scrutiny for its implications in the economy and the environment. A linear plastics economy means that after a first-use cycle, 95% of plastic packaging material value is lost to the economy – some USD 80-120 billion. In addition, a million tonnes of plastic litter end up in the oceans every year causing an alarming problem. In response, polyolefin industries have created the Polyolefin Circular Economy Platform (PCEP), as a European joint industry value chain initiative. For example, Borealis with its partner company NOVA Chemicals and the joint-venture Borouge have started the project STOP (Stop Ocean Plastics) to prevent 10,000 tons of ocean plastic leakage in South-East Asia. The global commitment is to combine the power of innovation, industry, business, policy, and education to eradicate plastic pollution at the source. This commitment implies that all plastic packaging should be collected and safely reused, recycled, or composted. This will offer a root cause solution to plastic pollution with profound economic, environmental, and societal benefits. In addition, another important benefit is that plastic recycling helps cut CO2 emissions, in line with the Paris Agreement and Circular Economy Solutions.
The transition to the circular economy must be made as eco-efficiently as possible, but circularity has to be a priority together with quality and performance to ensure acceptance. Two of the most highly produced polymers are polyethylene (PE) and isotactic polypropylene (iPP) due to their low cost, ease of manufacturing and excellent properties. More than 70 million and 50 million metric tons of PE and PP, respectively, are produced annually and one of the main producers is Borealis group (our REPOL-EID non-academic beneficiary).
Polymer blending is an economic alternative to developing products with tailored properties. However, polymers are frequently thermodynamically immiscible. In the case of PE and PP, their immiscibility produces phase separation and inhibits interfacial adhesion with damaging consequences to thermo-mechanical properties. Roughly 5% of the value is retained when these plastics are mechanically recycled, typically into lower-value products (down-grade recycling), as a result of sorting expenses and degraded physical properties. Compatibilizers open opportunities for upgrade-recycling recovered PE/PP into equal- or higher-value materials with lower categorisation costs during recycling. Because PE and PP are of great economic importance (more than ~$200 billion in annual sales, worldwide), strategies to compatibilize these materials may have considerable potential to affect sustainability and the economy.
The REPOL European Industrial Doctorate (EID) project (Characterization, compatibilization, processing and properties of recycled polyolefins) has the overall objective of training a new generation of doctoral students on cutting edge characterization of recycled polyolefins, compatibilization of recycled PP/PE blends through the selection of suitable compatibilizers or the preparation of polymer blend nanocomposites (PBNANOs) based on recycled polyolefin/PET blends and nanoparticles, while exploring innovative processing routes to tailor morphology and properties. In other words, they will be trained to design and produce plastic materials based on post-consumer recycled plastic waste with an innovative up-grade philosophy, while being coached by expert polymer researchers from academia and industry. The Early Stage Researchers (ESR) will be offered a high-quality individual and networking training program, following the EU Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training, while strengthening the transfer and exploitation of knowledge for circular plastic solutions. Experts at the interface between polymer science and recycling will be highly needed in the near future. REPOL-EID will be established by a consortium of leading European scientists in the academic and private industrial sector of polymer chemistry and materials engineering. The 2 academic beneficiaries: University of the Basque Country (SP) and University of Genoa (IT), together with Borealis as industrial beneficiary (AT) will collaborate on the training through research of three early stage researchers (ESRs) with a highly inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary approach by combining frontier research projects and industrial applications.
