The_Catalyst_Review_December_2023 - 20

Movers & Shakers
Sameer Vijay, PhD
Lead, Technology & Product in Recycling, Borouge PTE., Ltd., Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Dr. Vijay received a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology
Bombay, Mumbai, India. in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Univ. of Notre Dame
in 2004. During his stay at Notre Dame and his post-doctoral work at FHI-Berlin, he carried out
research on impregnated sulfated-zirconia catalyzed isomerization of alkanes. His industrial career
started with a posting at LG Chemicals dealing with VCM catalysts and reaction engineering. He
then moved on to Borealis in Linz, Austria, where, as a Group Expert for Polyolefin Technologies, he
worked extensively on several proprietary process technologies, including catalyst production and
recycling technologies. He is currently working on advancing the Circular Economy for polyolefins
using novel process technology for Borouge. Dr. Vijay has been granted over twenty patents and
has authored multiple publications and can be reached at sameer.vijay@borouge.com.
The Catalyst Review asked Dr. Vijay to share his thoughts on the impact of new catalyst
development for environmental remediation as well as new applications for catalytic chemistry in
the Circular Economy.
Circular Economy is an idea that originates from multiple schools of thought and has become a topic of significant importance over
the past few years. The concept involves constructs wherein the production and consumption of resources are kept in a closed loop,
preventing leakage of resources. The three principles required for the transformation to a circular economy are (a) designing out
waste and pollution, (b) keeping products and materials in use, and (c) regenerating natural systems.
Plastic waste (from packaging and other sources) is a well-known byproduct of contemporary living that affects people worldwide. In
this context, there is a renewed focus on using catalysts for processes that can enable some level of circularity for plastic waste. Most
plastic waste consists of polyolefins - polyethylene/PE (resin types 2 & 4) polypropylene/PP (resin type 5), and PET (resin type 1).
Current recycling processes rely heavily on collected and pre-sorted waste and mechanical processing, with overall yields relatively
low. In addition, the quality of the processed plastic suffers due to contamination, making it unsuitable for reuse in automotive
interiors, electric cables, water/food contact, or packaging. While collection and transport remain costly, technical advances in sensor
technology enable better sorting. One example of advanced sorting is the Holygrail 2.0 project, which aims to separate food-contact
or brand-specific packaging using printed or embossed digital watermarks.
Industry and academia have recently stepped up to address the lack of high-quality recycled plastic derived from plastic waste. An
essential aspect of their approach involves breaking plastic down into its constituent precursors and processing them in existing
polymerization processes, including chemical or molecular recycling. For example, researchers have extensively studied the
depolymerization of PET involving hydrolysis, methanolysis, glycolysis, aminolysis, and ammonolysis over the last two decades.
Depolymerization is conducted using traditional ionic phase transfer or enzymatic catalysis. Several processes at varying technology
readiness levels (TRLs) are available, and multiple large-scale plants are in operation or being installed.
The same approach is being carried out for other plastics via thermochemical conversion (pyrolysis or gasification) to obtain
intermediates that may be used as feedstock for downstream processing. Using a mass-balance approach, a portion of such
feedstock would be counted as recycled. Even at TRL 7-9, most current process technologies would require pure plastic waste
streams, which are economically non-viable in the current format. Technology that could treat mixed-plastic waste or waste that is
not suitable for mechanical processing (e.g., plastic waste from medical facilities) remains unavailable.
Clearly, an improved understanding of the chemistry of treating mixed-plastic waste and more innovative reactor designs is required.
Several pathways where catalysts (traditional, novel, photo-, photoelectro-, bio-, or enzymatic-) and reactor engineering could enable
better conversion of mixed plastic waste or subsequent byproducts to valuable products are currently under investigation, and the
number of published articles on these topics is rapidly rising. In addition, new catalyst design principles and process improvements
that can be rapidly brought to life are urgently needed.
Coming Soon - Topics Include:
* Bio-lubricants
* Process Technology Markets
* Polyolefin Supports * Electricity-based Heating in Catalysis
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