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Innovative green science will be key to building a more sustainable planet.
What’s next off the research desk?
It might seem crazy, but American developers are claiming a new way to make plastic from waste CO2. Giles Crosse speculates on this breakout technology.
US company Novomer has filed something in the region of 12 patents during its lifespan. But what’s of most interest are recent moves to put plastic polymers created from CO2 out there in the market.
It doesn’t take long to spot the advantages. Worldwide demands for ways to sequester CO2 are rising. A process that does this and creates a new fossil fuel plastic alternatives could be a winner.
The firm began life as a startup at Cornell University, using work from Cornell Researcher Geoff Coates. In December 2009 plans were announced for an $800,000 project to commercialise the green plastics, funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
The aim of this is to create trial grade polypropylene carbonate (PPC) materials, for packaging and coating plastics like bottles and film. Novomer hopes these will use as much as 50 per cent less energy than other fossil based plastics.
Plastic from gas
But how does the science actually work? Mike Slowik is Novomer’s Manager of Strategic Planning and Analysis:
“As you know with traditional plastic we’re looking at 100 per cent fossil fuel based. The key difference with what we are proposing is you are looking at 50 per cent fossil fuel based and 50 per cent CO2 based. This is all made possible by using a metal catalyst, propylene oxide and CO2.
“We aim to compete with materials like polystyrene, polypropylene, at the minute we are scaling up to the pilot system plant. These of course are operating at relatively small volumes so there are none of the advantages of scale at this point. But we’re confident we will actually be positive on cost.”
Something potentially encouraging is the relatively low energy levels needed to make plastic in this way. In the future, perhaps we might see plastic factories built next to power stations, using their waste CO2 on site, minimising other costly measures to deal with the gas.
“It’s industrial grade CO2 we are using, so it will eventually come from industrial grade suppliers,” says Slowik. “And that might be anyone who’s producing sufficient quantities, this CO2 is always coming to us from a waste process, whether in a commercial power station or not.”
“We want to make the least carbon emissions from transport that we possibly can, so we will aim to site facilities near to local sources of the carbon to minimise extra transport and logistical elements.”
Fuel or food
Something else Slowik believes may help development is that the process doesn’t use land and resources in the same way many bio-alternatives do, like biocrops for fuels including biodiesel, or other plant based plastics. What about the carbon costs of recycling plastic too?
“Which is more or less harmful, or better, rHDPE, biobased, our product?” he asks. “Until we are more advanced with the LCA it’s tough to say. But we don’t need land for crops, or water, as biobased does. What’s the carbon cost of clearing land?”
“We don’t have to think about CO2 bound up in the greenhouse growing a biocrop. There are no issues with recycling the material, but it is not biodegradable. For it to do so would release the carbon back into the environment, so whilst most customers ask the question initially they soon get the logic,” he continues.
It might be possible to get the science to work with other steps being taken in places like Brazil, where ‘green’ plastics are being made from crops like sugarcane. “We’re looking at something with lots of good uses and potential applications.” says Slowik.
“It’s interesting you mention the green polypropylene some Brazilian companies are developing. We can see there’s potential here, ultimately with the right combinations you might be looking at a fully sustainable product, and we will investigate combinations with biobased further down the line.”
If Novomer can make the science work at a commercial level, which is itself an interesting challenge, there may be real potential here. Some estimates suggest the planet itself uses CO2 to make over 200 billion tons of glucose by photosynthesis each year. A similar scale of plastic production using the new idea would massively limit CO2 emissions.
Despite the failure of Copenhagen to create anything truly binding, global leaders still have the opportunity to embed cap and trade systems on carbon, and these would incentivise markets on a cost basis to speed the uptake and development of similar new science.
Such steps would really give exciting new ideas a chance against larger corporate fossil based manufacturers. Science can do a lot to help make our lives more sustainable. But the price has to be right for it to work in the real world, and all too often there’s little visible policy leadership in these areas. Change here would be welcome indeed.
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