Enhancing the Sustainability of Plastics Using Sulphur Waste

07-May-2025 - Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have found a way to make plastics more sustainable by utilizing sulphur waste from the petroleum refining process. They have developed a method that allows so-called dynamic sulphur bonds to be easily integrated into polyesters. Their findings have been ...

Bio-based polyesters for demanding long-term applications

Making biopolymers fit for long-term use: New project will optimise bio-based materials to compete with petrochemical plastics

28-Mar-2025 - Current bio-based plastics are limited to short-life applications, such as packaging, as they have insufficient long-term properties. The new project "Bio-based polyesters for demanding long-term applications" by Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF aims to ...

Evonik aligns two business lines with new growth strategy

Businesses outside core areas are to be sold or discontinued

16-Oct-2024 - Evonik is reorganizing two business lines to strengthen their growth prospects. Coating & Adhesive Resins and Health Care will focus on and concentrate future investments in their respective core businesses. The remaining businesses outside these cores are to be sold to new owners or incorporated ...

Fluorinated plastics with an expiry date

The fluorine can be recovered from the degraded material to be reincorporated into all kinds of chemicals

15-Jul-2024 - Chemists at the University of Bayreuth, in collaboration with researchers from Berlin, have produced a new class of fluorinated polymers that degrade 20 times faster than their non-fluorinated equivalents. These results can help to prevent the accumulation of the industrially used fluorine ...

When nanoplastics are not what they seem

Release of oligomers from polyester textiles

12-Feb-2024 - Textiles made of synthetic fibers release micro- and nanoplastics during washing. Empa researchers have now been able to show: Some of the supposed nanoplastics do not actually consist of plastic particles, but of water-insoluble oligomers. The effects they have on humans and the environment are ...

Scientists upcycle polyesters through new waste-free, scalable process

Turning plastic waste into versatile building blocks for organic chemistry

10-Oct-2023 - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a new chemical process which upcycles polyesters, including PET in plastic bottles, to morpholine amide, a versatile and valuable building block for synthesizing a vast range of compounds. The reaction is high yield, waste-free, does ...

BASF Venture Capital invests in startup DePoly

DePoly develops low-energy and selective chemical recycling technologies for polyester waste streams

28-Jun-2023 - BASF Venture Capital GmbH (BVC), the corporate venture company of the BASF Group, announced an investment in the Swiss startup DePoly SA (DePoly), a sustainable plastic solutions provider developing a unique chemical recycling technology. Founded in 2020, the company has developed a chemical ...

Strong and biodegradable

A polyester plastic of great mechanical stability, which is also easily recyclable and even compostable

23-Dec-2022 - How can plastics be designed so they retain their desirable properties but at the same time can be more effectively recycled? This and other questions concerning the eco-friendliness of plastics are the focus of chemist Stefan Mecking and his research group at the University of Konstanz. In their ...

New upcycling system for commercial polyesters

Using commonly available materials and a simple mixing and heating process, polyesters can be transformed into highly recyclable, high-value materials

28-Sep-2022 - While plastics or synthetic polymers have many useful properties, their mismanagement has resulted in widespread pollution that chokes up our ecosystems. As a solution to this, many synthetic polymers are sent for reprocessing and recycling; polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most ...

Cattle stomachs help break down plastic

04-Aug-2021 - New results from a group of researchers at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (acib) and BOKU Vienna show that bacteria from cow stomachs can be used to degrade polyesters, which are used to make textiles, packaging and compostable plastic bags, among other things. On the one hand, ...