From Trash to Treasure: Using Catalysis to Upcycle Waste Plastic and Sustainable Feedstocks

Prof. Julie Rorrer

The Rorrer Lab leverages tunable heterogeneous catalytic systems to enable sustainable chemical transformations including the chemical upcycling of waste plastics, and catalytic upgrading of biomass-derived platform molecules. By developing targeted active catalytic sites to enable new chemical transformations and leveraging advanced characterization techniques, we aim to advance the field of renewable and sustainable chemical production, shifting away from fossil fuel consumption and mitigating the detrimental environmental effects of waste plastics.