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Solvent-based plastic recycling technologies

Nature Chemical Engineering volume 2, pages 407–423 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Solvent-based recycling approaches are receiving industrial and academic interest for their ability to produce high-quality plastic resins from a variety of plastic waste sources without breaking the polymer chains. Here we highlight the development of solvent-based technologies, focusing on the underlying principles, techno-economic and life-cycle analyses, and commercialization. The basic steps in solvent-based recycling include plastic size reduction, plastic dissolution, filtration or centrifugation, and optional additional cleaning steps such as adsorption, precipitation and solvent removal. Impurities that build up in the solvent must also be removed. The goal of solvent-based technologies is to produce a high-quality resin without plastic contaminants or other added substances. Disadvantages of these solvent-based technologies are their physicochemical complexity and the difficulty in scaling up to achieve continuous operations with high polymer and solvent yields and throughputs. Chemical engineering is thus critical in bringing solvent-based recycling technologies to market.

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Fig. 1: Simplified block flow diagrams of several current commercial dissolution-based plastic recycling plants.
Fig. 2: Theories and models for polymer solubility prediction.
Fig. 3: Comparison of climate change impact (kg CO2e per kg resin) for reported dissolution recycling processes and their respective virgin resin counterparts.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Bioenergy Technologies Office under award number DEEE009285.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Zhuo Xu, Kevin Sanchez-Rivera, Charles Granger, Panzheng Zhou, Aurora del Carmen Munguia-Lopez, Ugochukwu M. Ikegwu, Styliani Avraamidou, Victor M. Zavala, Reid C. Van Lehn & George W. Huber

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA

    Ezra Bar-Ziv

  3. Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Ghent University, Kortrijk, Belgium

    Steven De Meester

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  1. Zhuo Xu
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  2. Kevin Sanchez-Rivera
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Contributions

G.W.H. supervised the project. Z.X. conceived of the Review, coordinated authors, and combined and unified author contributions. All authors contributed to discussing, commenting on, writing and revising the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to George W. Huber.

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Competing interests

The following authors are inventors on at least one of the following patent applications related to this work: Z.X., K.S.-R., C.G., P.Z., R.C.V.L., E.B.-Z. and G.W.H. Patent applicant, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation; inventors, G.W.H., K.S.-R., R.C.V.L., T. Walker, P.Z.; application number, 17/989960; status of application, pending; specific aspect of manuscript covered in patent application, dissolution recycling methodology and computational methods for selecting recycling conditions. Patent applicants, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Michigan Technological University; inventors, G.W.H., Z.X., K.S.-R., E.B.-Z., S. Kolapkar, V. Ierulli; application number, 17/892573; status of application, pending; specific aspect of manuscript covered in patent application, examples of process steps, methodology and equipment. Patent applicants, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Michigan Technological University; inventors, G.W.H., T. Yan, C.G., K.S.-R., R.C.V.L., E.B.-Z., F. Long, P.Z.; application number, 18/665208; status of application, pending; specific aspect of manuscript covered in patent application, methods to remove solvent and color bodies from plastic, methods to remove color bodies from solvent. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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Xu, Z., Sanchez-Rivera, K., Granger, C. et al. Solvent-based plastic recycling technologies. Nat Chem Eng 2, 407–423 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44286-025-00247-1

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