Conference Speakers

Kat Knauer, Ph.D.

Program Manager - V Research, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Achieving Supply Chain Circularity

Supply chain sustainability is increasingly important for the future of business and the world as a whole. Globally, companies are looking at various initiatives when it comes to sustainability, including energy efficiency, product packaging, alternative fuels, optimized routes, and returns management. More recently, we have seen a push towards building a circular supply chain to eliminate waste and build a continual use of resources. Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE™) is a U.S. Department of Energy multi-organization consortium focused on developing new upcycling strategies for today's plastics to achieve a circular plastics supply chain. BOTTLE is employing four major strategies to achieve this vision: 1) Conduct analysis driven research using techno-economic analysis and life-cycle analysis to identify optimum solutions; 2) Redefine circularity by implementing upcycling paradigms; 3) Breakdown the walls between mechanical, chemical, and biological processes and combine innovations to achieve the most efficient and economical pathways for waste management; and 4) Redesign plastics with built in recyclability.

Redesigning Plastics to be Recyclable-by-Design

Bio-Optimized Technologies to keep Thermoplastics out of Landfills and the Environment (BOTTLE™) is a U.S. Department of Energy multi-organization consortium focused on developing new upcycling strategies for today's plastics and redesigning tomorrow’s plastic to be recyclable-by-design (RBD). The primary focus of the BOTTLE Redesign Task is to create tomorrow’s plastics to be RBD, economically viable, energy efficient, and derived from bio-based sources and today’s waste plastics. Working hand-in-hand with the modeling and analysis teams, we are actively developing a computational pipeline to predict RBD polymers with target thermal and mechanical properties. Using this "predictive redesign" approach, our goal is to develop RBD polymers that can replace today’s non-recyclable or hard-to-recycle commodity plastics. This talk will cover our flagship projects in prediction of RBD polymers, designer RBD Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), and circular polymers with both full chemical circularity and high performance.