Research consortium secures funding for plastic recycling technology development

A research consortium comprising technologists from the University of Birmingham and engineering firm Stopford has been awarded a further £300k of funding from Innovate UK to develop a novel plastic recycling technology. This funding has been awarded by UK Research and Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge to adapt the platform technology to PET-based plastic waste such as pots, salad trays, and tubs.

The new technology is a chemical recycling process that utilises hot compressed water as a green solvent to selectively depolymerise waste plastics into commodity compounds that can be processed to produce virgin materials. This supplants fossil fuel feedstocks and injects much-needed circularity into plastic waste management. It can recycle contaminated and degraded plastics and requires reduced downstream processing.

To accomplish this, the process exploits the unique behaviour of water in its supercritical state (above a certain temperature and pressure), where it exhibits reduced polarity and high solvating power for complex polymers like plastics. By virtue of combined intermediate heat and high pressure, it decomposes polymers at ‘selective spots,’ thus producing target products at high proportions.

The consortium's ongoing work, funded by Innovate UK, aims to establish a demonstrator facility at Birmingham’s Tyseley Energy Park to recycle polyolefin-based plastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene used in packaging.

Dr. Ben Herbert, Technology & Innovation Director at Stopford, said: “I am delighted that UKRI’s SSPP Challenge has once again recognised our technology as a ground-breaking recycling technology for managing waste plastics. I’m looking forward to working with our project partners to expand its application to enable a circular approach to the management of PET-based plastics waste.”

Professor Bushra Al-Duri, Professor of Sustainable Process Engineering at the University’s School of Chemical Engineering and inventor of the platform technology, said: “Supercritical water technology is exciting, intriguing, and challenging. We are dedicated to remaining on the road to alleviating the upcoming challenges with science and engineering and working as one team of complementing skills.”

David Coleman, CEO of the University of Birmingham Enterprise, said: “It’s great to see a technology invented in Birmingham coming full circle back to the city, which has fantastic facilities at the Tyseley Energy Park and other spaces where companies can collaborate with the research base in a supportive environment.”

This innovative technology shows promise for the future of plastic waste management, particularly as it can recycle contaminated and degraded plastics. With continued investment and development, this technology could help reduce the amount of plastic waste in landfills or the environment and promote a circular economy for plastics.