Scientific priorities for realising a circular economy

Design and evolution of protein catalysts - where to start

For more than a century, the complexity and synthetic potential of enzymes have fascinated chemists and biologists alike and provided enormous opportunity for discovery and creative endeavour. These natural catalysts have inspired the design of numerous homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, which seek to emulate the exquisite activity and selectivity achieved with enzymes. Despite their unrivalled selectivity and activity towards their native substrates or close analogues, enzymes isolated from natural sources tend to have a relatively narrow substrate scope, can suffer from poor stability and are often unable to carry out the chemical transformations of interest.

Enzyme engineering has succeeded in delivering artificial enzymes with enhanced properties and even those with new catalytic function. Directed evolution in particular has had an enormous part to play in the development of new biocatalysts and its impact has recently been recognised with the award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Efforts have also focused on computationally designed enzymes with idealised active site pockets.

This talk will highlight existing strategies for enzyme discovery, design and development. As early career researchers seek to make an impact in this field and carve out their own research areas, what strategies for enzyme design/discovery represent the most promising approaches for delivering novel catalysts for a wide range of chemical transformations?

Elaine O'Reilly was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1982. She graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) with a Bsc (Hons) in Chemistry (2006) and began a PhD in organic chemistry at UCD with Dr Francesca Paradisi. In 2010, she moved to the University of Manchester where she spent four years working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow under the direction of Professor Nicholas J. Turner. In 2014, she joined Manchester Metropolitan University as a Lecturer in Chemical Biology before moving to the University of Nottingham in 2015, first as Assistant Professor of Chemical Biology the as Associate Professor. In 2019, she moved to University College Dublin as Associate Professor of Chemical Biology. Her research focuses on the development and application of biocatalysts in organic chemistry.

General aspects for the development of future industrial catalytic processes are considered. The need to eliminate GHG emissions will require waste incineration to be abandoned almost completely, while avoiding alternative waste disposal in landfills at the same time. Circular economy will change the raw material basis for future chemicals production considerably by recycling used chemical products from municipal and industrial wastes. Energy-efficient processes will be in high demand to make this change happen in Europe, where renewable power is scarce compared to the current demand in our highly industrialized economies.
Examples for relevant catalytic and related processes will be discussed briefly, among them synthesis gas generation and processing as well as electro-catalysis as enablers for future valorization of renewable power for chemicals and fuels production. Heat management in and around catalytic reactors must be addressed, too, to develop new and energy-efficient combinations of reactor plus catalyst.

Born and raised in Bochum in the Ruhr area, the heart of Germany’s former coal mining and steel manufacturing region.

1997 PhD in Physical Chemistry in Professor Hans-Joachim Freund’s group in Bochum. The title of his PhD thesis was “Reactions on alkali-doped oxides with corundum structure.”

1997 Lab team leader in the catalyst research department of BASF in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

2001-2007 Global product manager in the catalyst marketing department of BASF

2007-2009 Business manager for petrochemical catalysts in the BASF Catalyst Division at their headquarters in Iselin, NJ.

2009-present group leader and senior catalyst expert positions with BASF in the catalyst research department in Ludwigshafen.

Current fields of research activities in BASF’s Carbon Management program, projects in the field of synthetic fuels and on aspects of Circular Economy.

Dr Collier is a Research Fellow at Johnson Matthey and leads its research activities at Harwell and is also responsible for corporate analytical teams in NMR and XPS at the central research facility at Sonning Common. He has led R&D teams looking at methane activation and MOF research along with diverse projects in catalysis and zeolite research. In addition to this he has led a product development team based in the UK and USA looking at the scale-up and commercialisation to multi-tonne quantities of new catalysts. Dr Collier’s PhD was in precious metal nanocatalysis at Liverpool University and PDRA with Prof Hutchings at Cardiff University. With 16 years industrial experience and over 40 publications and patents Dr Collier has significant experience in science and technology in an applied setting.

Graham Hutchings, born 1951, studied chemistry at University College London. His early career was with ICI and AECI Ltd where he became interested in heterogeneous catalysis initially with oxides and subsequently with gold catalysis. In 1984 he moved to academia and has held chairs at the Universities of Witwatersrand, Liverpool and Cardiff and currently he is Director of the Cardiff Catalysis Institute. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2009, and he was awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 2013.

Industrial symbiosis in the cement industry

In industrial symbiosis, waste from one enterprise becomes the resource for another, in an analogy with natural ecosystems in which organisms cycle resources for mutual benefit. For example, Portland cement is traditionally manufactured by heating limestone and clay at high temperature in a kiln. Consequently, cement production uses about 11,000,000,000 GJ of energy, is responsible for about 7% of global CO2 emissions, and consumes more than 5,000,000,000 tonnes of raw materials. Replacing both the fuels and minerals used in cement production with industrial wastes can help to conserve both fossil fuels and natural mineral resources. However, there is frequently a contrast between ideologies regarding proposals for utilisation of wastes, where some oppose utilisation of waste on principle; on the other hand, those who want to take advantage of practical benefits may be unwilling to engage with potential environmental risks. This presentation will explore some of the issues that can arise in industrial symbiosis, using waste utilisation in the cement industry as an example.

Professor Julia Stegemann is Director of the Centre for Resource Efficiency & the Environment at University College London, and also Co-Director of CircEL, a UCL-wide research hub for the circular economy. Her research is on sustainable technologies and systems to enable return of wastes to the resource loop. She studies physical, chemical and biological processes of accumulation and transformation of waste, in relation to prevention, treatment and utilisation. Julia has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University and a PhD from Imperial College London, as well as more than 30 years of research experience gained also at Oxford University, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Environment Canada.

An industry view of the key role of science in the quest for the circular economy

The introduction of renewable polyethylene, announced in 2007, quickly positioned Braskem as a major player in a nascent bioplastics industry that was still trying to define its value proposition. Most bioplastics were then touted as biodegradable, often without a clear definition of what was meant by that attribute, an approach that left the door open for greenwashing.

Braskem made what seems, in retrospect, to have been a key decision: to use only science-based arguments when talking about the renewable product attributes. Starting with an eco-efficiency study, the company went on to certify each batch with a bio-based carbon content analysis. It then made data from the process available to an external team that conducted a peer-reviewed life-cycle assessment. A label, I’m green™, was created to differentiate the material; to use it, a client must state the minimum bio-carbon content in the product.

Science plays a crucial role when making decisions to minimize the social, economic, and environmental impacts. This presentation introduces science as an essential component of Braskem’s commitment to the Circular Economy, which includes supporting and taking active part in scientific research and participating in initiatives such as the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. One example is the development of new renewable materials based on disruptive scientific advances such as molecular biology and catalysis. The circular economy will benefit from a well-conceived, consistent environment of materials, processes, and policies – and science plays an important role in all these dimensions.

Roberto Werneck is a Chemical Engineer with an MSc degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He has worked in many industries such as Chemical, Petrochemical, Oil & Gas, and Mining & Metals with activities ranging from consulting to engineering design, start-up and commissioning. He teaches Process Control at the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro. After seven years leading the Process Technologies for Renewables in Braskem, a team that develops new processes and supports the Green Ethylene plant in Brazil, Roberto is now in charge of Technology Intelligence, within the Innovation & Technology area in Braskem.

Enhanced feedstock recycling

There are two major routes for the recycling of plastic waste; mechanical and feedstock. The most widespread approach to feedstock recycling is the pyrolysis (or cracking) of the plastic waste. However, this process requires high operating temperatures (typically 500°C – 900°C) with a subsequent large adiabatic temperature drop across the reactor (fixed bed or fluidised) which combined with catalyst deactivation results in significant processing issues. In addition the products are wide ranging from C1 to upwards of C50 and post pyrolysis separation/fractionation is required. 

A more energy neutral option to catalytic cracking of plastics is that of hydrocracking, which in the presence of a suitable catalyst not only offers the potential for the selective recovery of useful chemical fractions, but is also is tolerant of the presence of heteroatoms such as chlorine or fluorine in the plastic. The hydrocracking process offers the opportunity to produce medium chain hydrocarbons such as naphtha and diesel fuel and the use of hydrogen in the reactor minimises the generation of coking and thus extends the viable lifetime of the catalyst before regeneration is required. 

The work at Manchester showed it was possible to carry out the slightly exothermic reaction at much reduced temperatures (200°C–350°C) whilst maintaining production/conversion yields comparable to the cited literature values. Most importantly, the significantly shorter reaction times (typically 5 mins) now make continuous processing of polymer waste a possibility

Arthur obtained his PhD at Manchester on the artificial maturation of kerogen and first worked on heterogeneous catalysis as a BP extramural researcher until 1987. This was followed by several years in the petrochemical and chemical industry sector before becoming an academic at UMIST in 1998. From 1998 to 2005 he developed 'waste' catalysts for 'waste' polymers using the highly endothermic FCC process. A shift in emphasis to more energetically favourable hydrocracking of mixed plastic waste streams resulted in a Royal Society Brian Mercer Innovation award in 2008 and two patents using zeolite catalysts to produce naphtha. Arthur also has a Royal Academy of Engineering Exxon Mobil Excellence in Teaching award also in 2008. Currently, he is a lead investigator on the Catalysis Circular Economy theme (“Keeping Platform Chemicals in Play”) and is a Reader in Chemical Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Bucknall holds the Chair in Materials Chemistry at Heriot-Watt University (HWU). He received his PhD in polymers from Imperial College London, and was a postdoc researcher at the MPI for Polymer Research (Mainz, Germany), before taking up a position as senior scientist at the UK national neutron facility. He subsequently held academic faculty positions at Oxford University, UK, and Georgia Institute of Technology, USA before taking up his current position. His research interests are in areas associated with understanding the structure-property-processing relationship in polymers and composites. His current research includes the behavior in polymers and composites in harsh environments (including high pressure and temperature), functional adaptive materials, flexible electronics, energy harvesting, sustainable polymers and elastomer bio-recycling. He is founder and co-director of the HWU led Consortium on Plastics and Sustainability (COMPASS), which is applying multidisciplinary teams to understand and find solution to issues of the plastics circular economy.