The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Technology Transfers is holding a series of webinars on cutting-edge technologies being developed at the DOE National Labs – and the transformative applications they could have globally for clean energy. We sat down with the people behind these technologies – the experts who make that progress possible. These interviews highlight why a strong energy workforce is so important, from the lab into commercial markets. These interviews have been edited for length and do not necessarily reflect the views of the DOE. Be sure to attend DOE’s next National Lab Discovery Series webinar on catalysts for plastics upcycling on Thursday, August 22.
Dr. Max Delferro has spent his career bringing research on plastics recycling to the forefront of scientific discussions. Since 2008, he has focused on how to effectively and economically recycle plastics – but also how to turn them into more valuable materials like synthetic oils and waxes. As a Group Leader of the Catalysis Science Program Group at Argonne National Laboratory, Dr. Delferro’s work could help take plastic out of landfills and put them to good use elsewhere.
A Post-doctorate in Plastics Manufacturing
After completing three degrees – including a PhD – at the University of Parma in Italy, Dr. Delferro moved to Chicago, where he took up a postdoc position at Northwestern University. With a background in organometallic chemistry, Dr. Delferro hadn’t considered working on polymer synthesis until he started his postdoc.
“When I first came to Northwestern after my PhD, they were working on the development of new catalysts to make polymers, such as polyethylene,” Dr. Delferro said. “I had zero knowledge of how to do this at first, but I initiated my first ethylene polymerization – it took a few seconds – and a white powder started to precipitate. It was amazing.”
That was 16 years ago – a time when plastics accumulation in the environment wasn’t yet a hot topic for public discussion like it is today. Now, as Dr. Delferro says, there is at least one article in every journal or newspaper at any given time discussing the role and impact of plastics in our society.
“It took circa 100 years of research on how to make efficient and functional polymers. We’ve created a polymer that can go into space, and we’ve produced a polymer that uses the same material but has completely different properties to make a plastic bag. Scientists have mastered the engineering and design of how to make these polymers, but we still don’t know how to efficiently deconstruct them.”
After he joined Argonne National Laboratory in 2016, Dr. Delferrro started to think on how to convert plastics into new products. However, the first feedback he received was why anyone should care about plastics deconstruction when there’s plenty of landfills to dispose of plastics.
“Maybe in 20, 30, 50 years there will be no more room in landfills,” Dr. Delferro responded. “What are we going to do with that material then? We will need to discover how to selectively deconstruct plastics, in particular polyolefins.”
Polyolefins are a class of polymers that make up about 50 to 64% of the world’s plastic waste. They are not biodegradable, causing them to accumulate in landfills or wherever they’re disposed of.
Over dinner, Dr. Delferro and his colleagues discussed this idea and how to apply for funding to research this exact question. A white paper was sent to DOE’s Office of Science, Basic Energy Science which initially funded the project, followed by funding through the Energy Frontier Research Center, Institute for Cooperative Upcycling of Plastics (ICOUP). Dr. Delferro’s research could begin.
Read more of this article, from the Federation of American Scientists.