Webinar - Biobased polymers in a circular economy

The Groningen Engineering Business Center in cooperation with the BioCooperative and SUSPACC organize a webinar around Biobased Polymers in a Circular Economy. Prof. Dr. Katja Loos, chair of the Macromolecular Chemistry and New Polymeric Materials research group of the University of Groningen will present her research. You are cordially invited to join this webinar free of charge. Feel free to forward this message to anybody interested in your network.

Abstract: Using sustainable resources instead of fossil-based resources is one solution to overcome environmental burdens of soft organic materials/polymers. Biomass feedstocks are a promising resource because of their sustainability. The development of refinery processes has been dramatically accelerated due to improvements in the combinations of chemical and biological pathways for production of, for example, bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, and bio-olefins. Biomass feedstock can be converted into raw materials for polymer production, and the resulting polymers are called biobased polymers.

Unfortunately, even biobased polymers waste pollution poses a major threat because of issues of non-degradability affecting the ecological environments and recycling rates remain small on a global scale. To tackle this accumulation of waste problem, the European strategy for plastics in the circular economy (CE) is gaining wide attention. Strategies of open and closed-loop recycling as well as upcycling and downcycling approaches can offer paths to validate these secondary raw materials.

The webinar is online. The link comes available 30 minutes before the start of the session:
https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/655e06b4437440098f59bcf7f24da30e