{"id":387741,"date":"2022-07-27T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=387741"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T11:00:00","slug":"living-with-plastic-thermo-chemical-recycling-can-change-the-way-we-view-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/living-with-plastic-thermo-chemical-recycling-can-change-the-way-we-view-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Living with plastic: thermo-chemical recycling can change the way we view waste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u2018I love waste,\u2019 laughs Isabel Ca\u00f1ete Vela while explaining how the technology behind thermo-chemical recycling works. She is a Ph.D. student at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalmers.se\/en\/Pages\/default.aspx\">the Chalmers University of Technology<\/a>. Together with a team of scientists, they have developed a way to turn waste that contains plastics into new plastics. It has the potential to change the way we use this material and give a boost to circular economics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-io-blocks-bio io-block io-block__bio\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"io-block__bio-image\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Isabel-Canete-Vela.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure><div><h3 class=\"io-block__bio-name\">Isabel Ca\u00f1ete Vela<\/h3><h4 class=\"io-block__bio-position\">Ph.D. student, Department of Space, Earth, and Environment at the Chalmers University of Technology<\/h4><p class=\"io-block__bio-description\">She is part of the research team that has developed the thermo-chemical recycling technique.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thermo-chemical recycling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018There are three different processes for recycling,\u2019 Ca\u00f1ete Vela goes on to explain. \u2018The simplest plastic is <em>polyethylene<\/em>, which is a long chain of bonded carbon. To implement the first technology, you need to heat it up to 300-400 degrees Celsius and break down the molecule into minuscule pieces. This process is called <em>pyrolysis <\/em>and requires low temperature,\u2019 Ca\u00f1ete Vela explains in more detail. Depending on the size of the molecule, higher temperatures of up to 700-800 degrees can be applied. This process is called <em>gasification<\/em>. It makes the molecules even shorter and produces carbon gases. \u2018The third and most difficult process involves combusting the plastic. From the carbon gases such as CO\u2082. you can make chemicals that you need for plastics,\u2019 Ca\u00f1ete Vela stresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the process is complex and requires more steps and energy, it enables the production of high-grade plastics. This is called <em>thermo-chemical recycling<\/em> and requires less energy for plastic production than what is needed when producing them from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"100% Recycling of any waste\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ItzMyG3IKPc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mechanical vs thermo-chemical recycling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Thermo-chemical is only one of the ways to turn waste back into plastics again. Mechanical recycling is also a method that can do this. But it does have a few disadvantages. &#8220;It is suitable for clean and small materials, which can be melted,&#8221; Ca\u00f1ete Vela states. According to her, mechanical recycling is limited. This has to do with the quality of the plastic. &#8220;When you re-melt plastic, the quality is further diminished each time.&#8221; This process can be performed several times, but then in order to restore the plastic to a useful form, thermo-chemical recycling is needed again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finding clean plastics is not easy. Industry mixes plastics together and this is a design problem. \u201cYou need a higher temperature to separate the contaminants from the thing you want,\u201d Ca\u00f1ete Vela notes. \u201cRecently I&#8217;ve been working a lot with textile waste, a lot of which are synthetic textiles, such as polyester and nylon. Many pieces of clothing have cotton, elastane, and polyester mixed together and to separate the plastic out of that, you need thermo-chemical recycling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018These methods are complementary, and depending on which plastic waste you have, you will use a different mechanism,\u201d Ca\u00f1ete Vela explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-388067\"\/><figcaption>\u00a9 Isabel Ca\u00f1ete Vela<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A society without plastic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Living without plastic may seem impossible. In fact, this may well be true. But why live without it if we can recycle it? \u201cPlastic is very cheap to produce,\u201d Ca\u00f1ete Vela adds. \u201cIt has enabled the mass production of toothpaste, for one thing. Cheap plastic has given many people access to toothbrushes and toothpaste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think that some of the ways we use plastics are not good. But in some cases, it is good for society. Many people immediately jump to conclusions that all plastics are bad, but I don\u2019t like to say something is bad.\u201d Yet, recycling allows the new production of new things. \u201cYou can use the recycled material for anything you want. And the good thing about thermo-chemical recycling is that you break down the materials to their molecules,\u201d adds Ca\u00f1ete Vela. When plastic is broken down into molecules, then they have the same level of quality as if the plastic has been produced from oil. This is high-grade plastic according to Ca\u00f1ete Vela.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"vlp-link-container vlp-layout-basic wp-block-visual-link-preview-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/soon-youll-be-sitting-on-a-street-bench-made-out-of-your-own-plastic-waste\/\" class=\"vlp-link\" title=\"Soon you&#039;ll be sitting on a street bench made out of your own plastic waste\"><\/a><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-side\"><div class=\"vlp-block-2 vlp-link-image\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-main\"><div class=\"vlp-block-0 vlp-link-title\">Soon you&#8217;ll be sitting on a street bench made out of your own plastic waste<\/div><div class=\"vlp-block-1 vlp-link-summary\">The huge mountain of plastic waste in our country keeps on growing. Fortunately, the start-up vanAfval from Leek, Groningen, knows what to do with it. <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Waste as a resource<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWorldwide, right now around 5 percent of plastics are recycled into another product, and this could really be more,\u201d explains Ca\u00f1ete Vela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though waste turns out to be a valuable resource as a way to produce high-grade plastics, this is not a view that we all have. Many of us throw things away without thinking about their value, the environment, or what could they be used again for. \u201cFor me, everything has value,\u201d says Ca\u00f1ete Vela. \u201cEven the things that people don\u2019t want to use anymore. There\u2019s always somebody who may want to use them again, or the material they are made out of has value. Ever since I was young, I used to like building all kinds of things. I used pieces of things that people didn\u2019t want anymore. And I always felt that everything can be used for something,\u201d Ca\u00f1ete Vela says. This kind of mindset is something we should adopt, especiallly if we want to commit ourselves to circularity and sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Problems along the way<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Developing new technology is never easy. It always involves trial and error. For Isabel Ca\u00f1ete Vela, the hardest part was not about making the technology work. For her, it was something else. \u201cI think personally, publishing scientific papers has been the most challenging part,\u201d Ca\u00f1ete Vela tells us. \u201cWe knew how to make the technology work, we tested it with different types of plastics, textiles, and mixed waste. For me, that&#8217;s the most fun part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"388070\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/ICV-measuring-total-carbon-2-955x1004.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-388070\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-id=\"388071\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/ICV-measuring-total-carbon-665x1004.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-388071\"\/><\/figure>\n<figcaption class=\"blocks-gallery-caption\">Isabel Ca\u00f1ete Vela working on the pilot project \u00a9 Chalmers University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Future plans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a demonstration to understand whether the technology works. Now that we know that it does, we just need to make it bigger,\u201d Ca\u00f1ete Vela states. But finding the funding to commercialize a technology is hard work. Right now, the amount that can be recycled is a few kilos per hour which is not enough to scale up the technology.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to scale up maybe 100 to 1000 times bigger.\u201d Further research is currently underway on a business level to gain an understanding of the costs of scaling up. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"vlp-link-container vlp-layout-basic wp-block-visual-link-preview-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/boat-made-out-of-plastic-waste-straight-from-the-3d-printer\/\" class=\"vlp-link\" title=\"Boat made out of plastic waste straight from the 3D printer\"><\/a><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-side\"><div class=\"vlp-block-2 vlp-link-image\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vlp-layout-zone-main\"><div class=\"vlp-block-0 vlp-link-title\">Boat made out of plastic waste straight from the 3D printer<\/div><div class=\"vlp-block-1 vlp-link-summary\">Those who think that pleasure boats are only for the wealthy are wrong. Tanaruz boats designs and 3D-prints boats for a more affordable price. <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018I love waste,\u2019 laughs Isabel Ca\u00f1ete Vela while explaining how the technology behind thermo-chemical recycling works. She is a Ph.D. student at the Chalmers University of Technology. Together with a team of scientists, they have developed a way to turn waste that contains plastics into new plastics. It has the potential to change the way [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2490,"featured_media":516697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[48948,72324,29486,62084,31716],"location":[54353],"article_type":[6758],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-387741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability-nl","tag-chalmers-university-of-technology","tag-isabel-canete-vela","tag-plastics","tag-recycling-waste-materials","tag-waste","location-sweden","article_type-interview"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"Waste can be a valuable resource with Chalmer's university new technology: thermo-chemical recycling.","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Polya Pencheva","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/polya-plamenova-pencheva\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/tanvi-sharma-4bD2p5zbdA-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Sustainability<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Chalmers University of Technology<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Isabel Canete Vela<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">plastics<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">recycling waste materials<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/sustainability-nl\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Waste<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Chalmers University of Technology<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Isabel Canete Vela<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">plastics<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">recycling waste materials<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Waste<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 27, 2022","modified":"Updated on July 27, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 27, 2022 1:00 pm","modified":"Updated on July 27, 2022 1:00 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387741"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=387741"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=387741"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=387741"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=387741"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=387741"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=387741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}