LUNA INNOVATIONS INCORPORATED — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 15a

Description

There are increasing legislative, social, and environmental factors motivating protection of the environment, including the oceans. Ocean plastic wastes (OPW) are now recognized as one of the most serious environmental issues for marine wildlife. Ingestion of plastic debris or entanglement has been recorded in 44-50% of all seabirds, all species of sea turtles, otters and fish. Past estimates suggest that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic entered the oceans in 2010. Currently, there are more than 30 trillion plastic particles floating on the surface of the oceans. The Department of Energy (DOE) is interested in conversion technologies that will utilize waste streams of plastic collected from oceans and waterways to make useful and viable products. However, economic analysis of plastic recycling demonstrates that the segregation and recycling of a single type of plastic, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), is not profitable compared with virgin plastic production. Between 2017 and 2020, the market price of 1lb of virgin PET pellets in the United States was between %0.95 and 1.15 USD while recycled PET is always about 10% more expensive. The incompatibility of different plastics, such as polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), depends on their physical properties (solubility, miscibility, transition temperatures, and degradation temperatures). This adds additional processing costs associated with material segregation and is a requirement for current OPW stream recycling. Luna’s Ocean2Wear™ conversion technology uses a unique compatibilizer, Ion Exchanged montmorillonite (IE-MMT) nanoclay (NC), which was selected to decrease the need for OPW segregation and increase plastic miscibility, while providing the necessary mechanical strength required to create economically viable filaments and fibers. Luna will deliver a novel technology to convert OPW into useful and economically viable feedstocks for filaments for 3D printing, textile, and other applications. The competitive advantage of Luna’s conversion technology is that it will support miscibility of at least six traditionally immiscible polymers reducing the cost related to waste separation. Our competitive advantage is achieved by using a new, high yield, low-cost compatibilizer that minimizes the interfacial tension between different polymers in a single blend. Luna’s compatibilizer can stabilize individual polymers against coalescence in the melted state, resulting in stabilization of the multi-phase morphology, and further enhance the adhesion between the phases in the solid-state. Luna will lead the plans for adaptation and filaments production scale up efforts, processing temperature adjustment. Commercial partners will support Luna in the process engineering and techno-economic analysis efforts for PLA application in production of filaments for textile application. The high-level Phase I techno- economic analysis will evaluate feasibility in terms of feedstock and energy costs, product values, equipment/ infrastructure costs, and operation/maintenance costs. This Phase I techno-economic analysis will be used to justify the technology’s commercialization potential as well as refine specific Phase II targets, such as process energy efficiency and scaled up costs. The detailed Phase II techno-economic analysis will be a quantitative projection of the plans and expected profitability of a pilot scale. This Phase II techno-economic analysis will be used to justify the expectations for successful transition into industry in Phase III.