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A unified view on catalytic conversion of biomass and waste plastics

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 6, pages 635–652 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Originating from the desire to improve sustainability, producing fuels and chemicals from the conversion of biomass and waste plastic has become an important research topic in the twenty-first century. Although biomass is natural and plastic synthetic, the chemical nature of the two are not as distinct as they first appear. They share substantial structural similarities in terms of their polymeric nature and the types of bonds linking their monomeric units, resulting in close relationships between the two materials and their conversions. Previously, their transformations were mostly studied and reviewed separately in the literature. Here, we summarize the catalytic conversion of biomass and waste plastics, with a focus on bond activation chemistry and catalyst design. By tracking the historical and more recent developments, it becomes clear that biomass and plastic have not only evolved their unique conversion pathways but have also started to cross paths with each other, with each influencing the landscape of the other. As a result, this Review on the catalytic conversion of biomass and waste plastic in a unified angle offers improved insights into existing technologies, and more importantly, may enable new opportunities for future advances.

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Fig. 1: Chemical similarities between biomass and plastics.
Fig. 2: Conversion strategies of Caliph–C linkages in biomass valorization and plastic upcycling.
Fig. 3: Conversion strategies of Carom–C linkages in biomass valorization and plastic upcycling.
Fig. 4: Conversion strategies of C–O bond linkages in biomass valorization and plastic upcycling.
Fig. 5: Conversion strategies of C–N linkages in biomass valorization and plastic upcycling.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Research Foundation of Singapore NRF Investigatorship (award no.: NRF-NRFI07-2021-0006), National Research Foundation of Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme (CARES), Emerging Opportunities Fund-EOF2 (Chemical Farming, WBS R-279-000-604-592), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 21832002), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (2018SHZDZX03) and the project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M691011 and 2021TQ0106).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Kyungho Lee, Yaxuan Jing.

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  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Kyungho Lee, Yaxuan Jing & Ning Yan

  2. Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Joint International Research Laboratory of Precision Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

    Yaxuan Jing & Yanqin Wang

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N.Y. conceived the Review. K.L. and Y.J. conducted the literature search and prepared the manuscript. Y.W. and N.Y. supervised the project and revised the manuscript. All authors participated in discussions.

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Lee, K., Jing, Y., Wang, Y. et al. A unified view on catalytic conversion of biomass and waste plastics. Nat Rev Chem 6, 635–652 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-022-00411-8

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