Overview

• A Northwestern-led team reports in Nature Chemistry an inexpensive cationic single-site nickel catalyst that selectively hydrogenolyzes polyolefins.
• Versus prior nickel systems, it operates about 100°C lower at half the hydrogen pressure, requires roughly 10× less catalyst, and delivers about 10× higher activity.
• The catalyst tolerated feedstocks with up to roughly 25% PVC by weight and showed accelerated performance in the presence of this typical contaminant.
• Reactions converted polyethylene and polypropylene into oils and waxes suitable as feedstocks for lubricants, fuels, candles, and related products, and the catalyst was regenerable using alkylaluminum.
• Researchers say the approach could reduce or bypass costly pre-sorting, but scalability, economics, and testing on real waste streams remain to be validated; the study involved collaborators at Purdue and Ames National Laboratory and received support from the U.S. Department of Energy and Dow.