University receives funding for chemically recycling mixed plastics

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been awarded $331,592 in state funding to help develop a process to convert mixed plastics into chemicals that is more efficient and cost-effective, ultimately reducing plastic waste and its environmental impact.

Chemical engineering professor Michael Timko and assistant research professor Alex Maag lead WPI’s effort to create a versatile and scalable process using modular reactors that convert mixed plastics and films into chemicals. The global plastic industry, valued at $593 billion, largely is made up of single-use plastics, WPI says, contributing 3.7 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions.

The WPI project is among several supported by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) and the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED) through the Mass. Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2) program.

The M2I2 funding will allow WPI to purchase equipment for its hydrothermal catalytic conversion of plastics, which includes equipment to analyze new and used catalysts and reaction products, providing proof of concept for effective plastic conversion into chemicals, and equipment to characterize intermediates on their way to useful chemicals.