| Investigators | Charles Cai |
| Project Sponsor | University of Tennessee |
| Project Period | October 2020 - September 2025 |
Overview
The dominant plastics used in plastic packaging include High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polystyrene (PS) and Polypropylene (PP) (Note: defined by our industrial partners). In this program, we will utilize a commercial blend of these waste polymers in our studies, as numerous studies have highlighted that it is cost prohibitive to separate comingled polymer waste streams into pure polymeric polymer streams. The proposed studies rely on:
o mechanical refining
o catalytic depolymerization
o microbial funneling to consume polymer fragments and convert them into lipids that can be used for innovative chemical and polymer applications.