UK university researching PHA chemical recycling

The project ‘Recycling PHA for Second life’ (RePHASe) studies hydrolysis as a PHA depolymerisation technology. The scientists are investigating whether the process, which has been proved in small batch quantities, can be scaled up using a continuous set up where water and catalysts are preserved and recycled into the process.

The team will use design software to map out the full chemical process, the heating and total energy demand, as well as a full design of the process to demonstrate the industrial scale. They will determine if its technically feasible and economically viable to scale up the process through a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and techno-economic assessment (TEA).

Two undergraduate researchers already did a case study with P3HB, one of the most common types of PHA. Their project found that soaking the polymer in methanol for 12-16 hours, and subsequently letting it dry, halved depolymerisation time, which is likely to lower resource expenditure.

Going forward, the team at RePHASe hopes to receive funding to investigate the engineering requirements to expand the process to commercial scale.