Plastic waste upcycled into membrane materials

The team at KAUST said these could then be used in the chemical industry for the energy-efficient separation of complex chemical mixtures or to clean up waste streams.

Polymeric membranes could be great partners for addressing many sustainability challenges, said Malinalli Ramírez Martínez, a Ph.D. student who led the research in Suzana Nunes’ group at KAUST. Thanks to their selectively permeable porous structure, they can reduce the environmental footprint of industrial separations, help in the treatment of waste effluent and create access to fresh water, she said.

“However, traditional membrane fabrication approaches mostly use pristine fossil-based non-renewable materials, which has a negative environmental impact and contradicts the sustainability benefits,” said Ramírez Martínez.

“We wanted to take polymeric membrane sustainability one step further by replacing some of the conventional materials used for their fabrication with bio-based solvents and waste plastics, following the principles of circular economy and green chemistry.”

Polyolefin plastics make up almost half of all discarded items in plastic waste streams. “Polyolefins are very popular due to their low cost and high thermal and chemical stability,” said Ramírez Martínez. “We find them in food packaging, reusable bags, shampoo bottles, toys and many more products.”