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Baral, Nawa R.

Publications and source records attributed to Baral, Nawa R..

5 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

A hybrid chemical-biological approach can upcycle mixed plastic waste with reduced cost and carbon footprint

Derived from renewable feedstocks, such as biomass, polylactic acid (PLA) is considered a more environmentally friendly plastic than conventional petroleum-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET). However, PLA must still be recycled, and its growing popularity and mixture with PET plastics at the disposal stage poses a cross-contamination threat in existing recycling facilities and results in low-value and low-quality recycled products. Hybrid upcycling has been proposed as a promising sustainable solution for mixed plastic waste, but its techno-economic and life cycle environmental performance remain understudied. We propose a hybrid upcycling approach using a biocompatible ionic liquid (IL) to first chemically depolymerize plastics and then convert the depolymerized stream via biological upgrading with no extra separation. Here we show that over 95% of mixed PET/PLA was depolymerized into the respective monomers, which then served as the sole carbon source for the growth of Pseudomonas putida, enabling the conversion of the depolymerized plastics into biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). In comparison to conventional commercial PHAs, the estimated optimal production cost and carbon footprint are reduced by 62% and 29%, respectively.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Complementary roles for mechanical and solvent-based recycling in low-carbon, circular polypropylene

Plastic recycling presents a vexing challenge. Mechanical recycling offers substantial greenhouse gas emissions savings relative to virgin plastic production but suffers from degraded aesthetic and mechanical properties. Polypropylene, one of the most widely used and lowest-cost plastics, features methyl pendants along the polymer backbone, rendering it particularly susceptible to declining properties, performance, and aesthetics across a succession of mechanical recycles. Advanced processes, such as solvent-assisted recycling, promise near-virgin quality outputs at a greater energy and emissions footprint. Mechanical and advanced recycling are often presented as competing options, but real-world plastic waste streams are likely to require preprocessing regardless of whether they are routed to an advanced process. This study quantifies the life-cycle greenhouse gas implications of multiple recycling strategies and proposes a system in which mechanical and solvent-assisted recycling can be leveraged together to boost recycling rates and satisfy demand for a wider range of product applications. Polypropylene can be recovered from mixed-plastic bales produced at material recovery facilities and processed through mechanical recycling, with a varying fraction sent for further upgrading via solvent-assisted recycling to produce material approved for food packaging and other higher-quality applications. The resulting mechanically recycled rigid polypropylene reduces life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by 80% relative to the same quantity of virgin material, while the upgraded higher-quality material achieves GHG savings of 30%.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Matching diverse feedstocks to conversion processes for the future bioeconomy

A wide variety of wasted or underutilized organic feedstocks can be leveraged to build a sustainable bioeconomy, ranging from crop residues to food processor residues and municipal wastes. Leveraging these feedstocks is both high-risk and high-reward. Converting mixed, variable, and/or highly contaminated feedstocks can pose engineering and economic challenges. However, converting these materials to fuels and chemicals can divert waste from landfills, reduce fugitive methane emissions, and enable more responsible forest management to reduce the frequency and severity of wildfires. Historically, low-value components, including ash and lignin, are poised to become valuable coproducts capable of supplementing cement and valuable chemicals. Here, we evaluate the challenges and opportunities associated with converting a range of feedstocks to renewable fuels and chemicals.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Biorenewable and circular polydiketoenamine plastics

Amid growing concerns over the human health and environmental impacts of plastic waste, the most promising solution would be to build a circular plastics economy where sustainability considerations dictate the full life cycle of plastics use including replacing petrochemicals with biorenewables. Here we show that by incorporating the polyketide triacetic acid lactone (TAL) in polydiketoenamines (PDK) we increase the working temperature of these circular plastics, opening the door wider to applications where circularity is urgently needed. By varying the number of carbons of TAL-derived monomers, both polymer properties and recycling efciency are afected. Simply using glucose as the main carbon source, we engineered a process for producing bioTAL under fed-batch fermentation. Furthermore, a systems analysis of this bioprocess under diferent scenarios quantifes the environmental and economic benefts of PDK plastics and the risks when implemented at an industrial scale, providing opportunities in biorenewable circularity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗