Plastics Recycling, Upcycling, and Redesign in the BOTTLE Consortium

Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE™) is a U.S. Department of Energy multi-organization consortium focused on developing new chemical upcycling strategies for today's plastics and redesigning tomorrow's plastics to be recyclable-by-design. This talk will introduce the BOTTLE Consortium and present several research highlights from our efforts to date including: 1) Catalytic hydrogenation of polyolefins; 2) Enzymatic hydrolysis of PET; 3) Upcycling PET monomers into new high-performance thermosets; 4) Circular, biodegradable Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and supply chain modeling will also be highlighted as critical tools to ultimately facilitate the development of economical and sustainable approaches for recycling and redesigning plastics.