Recycling of multilayer plastic packaging materials by solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation

Walker, Theodore W.; Frelka, Nathan; Shen, Zhizhang; Chew, Alex K.; Banick, Jesse; Grey, Steven; Kim, Min Soo; Dumesic, James A.; Van Lehn, Reid C.; Huber, George W.

doi:10.1126/sciadv.aba7599

Title: Recycling of multilayer plastic packaging materials by solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation

Journal Article · Fri Nov 20 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Science Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aba7599· OSTI ID:1764997

^[1];

^[1]; Shen, Zhizhang ^[1];

^[1]; Banick, Jesse ^[2];

^[3]; Kim, Min Soo ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]

Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Neenah Innovation Center, Neenah, WI (United States)
Neenah Innovation Center, Neenah, WI (United States)

Many plastic packaging materials manufactured today are composites made of distinct polymer layers (i.e., multilayer films). Billions of pounds of these multilayer films are produced annually, but manufacturing inefficiencies result in large, corresponding postindustrial waste streams. Although relatively clean (as opposed to municipal wastes) and of near-constant composition, no commercially practiced technologies exist to fully deconstruct postindustrial multilayer film wastes into pure, recyclable polymers. Here, we demonstrate a unique strategy we call solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation (STRAP) to deconstruct multilayer films into their constituent resins using a series of solvent washes that are guided by thermodynamic calculations of polymer solubility. We show that the STRAP process is able to separate three representative polymers (polyethylene, ethylene vinyl alcohol, and polyethylene terephthalate) from a commercially available multilayer film with nearly 100% material efficiency, affording recyclable resins that are cost-competitive with the corresponding virgin materials.

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Research Organization:: Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), Madison, WI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018409

OSTI ID:: 1764997

Journal Information:: Science Advances, Vol. 6, Issue 47; ISSN 2375-2548

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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