My PhD project is going to focus on developing approaches that are able to tackle the challenges plastic waste represents for a circular economy. Since 2014, up to 30 % of plastic used in the EU has been landfilled. The remaining 70 % is either recycled or consumed in energy recovery. In an attempt to reduce landfill and improve recycling/ energy recovery processes, my PhD will look at thermal and catalytic pyrolysis of waste plastic streams to produce energy or convert it back into chemical building blocks.
The project will focus upon developing practical solutions and will involve the design and testing of small-scale converters (e.g. fluidized bed reactors) and extrudates as well as the related characterization of suitable catalysts and processes via spectroscopic methods.
Publications
Vollmer, I; Jenks, M J F; González, R Mayorga; Meirer, F; Weckhuysen, B M
Plastic Waste Conversion over a Refinery Waste Catalyst Journal Article
In: Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, vol. 60, no. 29, pp. 16101-16108, 2021.
@article{Vollmer202116101,
title = {Plastic Waste Conversion over a Refinery Waste Catalyst},
author = {I Vollmer and M J F Jenks and R Mayorga González and F Meirer and B M Weckhuysen},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85107941868&doi=10.1002%2fanie.202104110&partnerID=40&md5=678454b9d430abb6eb8eb778e4077d9f},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-01-01},
urldate = {2021-01-01},
journal = {Angewandte Chemie - International Edition},
volume = {60},
number = {29},
pages = {16101-16108},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Vollmer, I; Jenks, M J F; Roelands, M C P; White, R J; van Harmelen, T; de Wild, P; van der Laan, G P; Meirer, F; Keurentjes, J T F; Weckhuysen, B M
Beyond Mechanical Recycling: Giving New Life to Plastic Waste Journal Article
In: Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, vol. 59, no. 36, pp. 15402-15423, 2020.
@article{Vollmer202015402,
title = {Beyond Mechanical Recycling: Giving New Life to Plastic Waste},
author = {I Vollmer and M J F Jenks and M C P Roelands and R J White and T van Harmelen and P de Wild and G P van der Laan and F Meirer and J T F Keurentjes and B M Weckhuysen},
url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85087630608&doi=10.1002%2fanie.201915651&partnerID=40&md5=c90b03bdfab6b6c73c6e8241b29e7914},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
journal = {Angewandte Chemie - International Edition},
volume = {59},
number = {36},
pages = {15402-15423},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
