ALABAMA: Three Alabama universities receive $1.9M NSF grant to research multilayer plastics
Alabama-based Auburn University, Tuskegee University and Southern Union State Community College have received an NSF $1.9M grant to find new ways to recycle multilayer plastics. The grant funds a project called “Supercritical Extraction for the Elimination of End-of-Life Plastics,” and will begin Jan 1, 2022.
The group of eight researchers will study the properties of supercritical carbon dioxide mixtures to enable the separation of the materials used in typical multilayer food packaging. If successful, the team will then apply the new method to preexisting recycling streams and study its economic and social impacts.
Multilayered plastics include a mixture of polyethylene or polypropylene with other plastic films. Products that commonly use this sort of packaging include gas tanks, fruit cups and other forms of food packaging.
“They make up a majority of packaging we use to keep food fresh,” says Edward Davis, the principal investigator of the project and an associate professor of materials engineering at Auburn University. “However, because of the several types of materials and bindings used to make it, it’s hard to recycle.”
Davis says this project is unique because the process his team is developing can be applied to established streams.