Marine Plastic Upcycler
JHU Ref #: C17626
Value Proposition:
· The system upcycles degraded marine plastics, which other systems cannot do
· The process yields valuable industrial chemicals that can be sold at a high profit margin
· Initial runs have demonstrated that 97% of the plastics fed in are upcycled into BTX and gaseous hydrocarbons, a significant improvement over other systems that cannot catalyze as much plastic
Technology Description
· Researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a process to upcycle ocean plastics to produce useful aromatic products (e.g., benzene, toluene, xylene [BTX]), which can be sold as industrial chemicals.
· This includes a portable reactor that utilizes hydrogen generated from seawater hydrolysis and zeolite-based catalysts.
· The data produced from initial runs demonstrates that 97% of plastics fed in can be upcycled as BTX and gaseous hydrocarbons.
Unmet Need
· Over 10 million tons of plastic enter our oceans every year and takes centuries to degrade, which pollutes the marine ecosystems and is not sustainable for the planet [Almroth et al., Marine Plastic Pollution: Sources, Impacts, and Policy Issues. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/reep/rez012].
· Current methods of cleanup and “recycling” focus on repurposing plastics into useful goods, including sneakers, clothing, and household products.
· These solutions, while a good start, only utilize a small portion of ocean plastics and cannot manage degraded plastics. They also do not produce fuels or products other than sellable goods.
· Therefore, there is a strong need to develop processes that address the recycling/upcycling of degraded ocean plastics.
Stage of Development
This technology has been validated at bench scale with model materials.
Publication
N/A
