Synthesis and assessment of waste-to-resource routes for circular economy

The benefits of the circular economy have been proven during the past two decades, but its application poses some challenges. In particular, the increasing number of potential waste-to-resource processing alternatives obstructs the identification of the most promising ones, besides the lack of effic...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Pacheco López, Adrián|||0000-0002-5064-7545, Somoza Tornos, Ana|||0000-0002-4715-204X, Graells Sobré, Moisès|||0000-0002-0553-2191, Espuña Camarasa, Antonio|||0000-0002-1238-8108
Formato: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Recursos:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/356132
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/356132
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compchemeng.2021.107439
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Circular economy
Environmental chemistry
Material upcycling
Waste-to-resource
Ontologies
Chemical recycling
Plastic waste treatment
Economia circular
Química ambiental
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química
Descrição
Resumo:The benefits of the circular economy have been proven during the past two decades, but its application poses some challenges. In particular, the increasing number of potential waste-to-resource processing alternatives obstructs the identification of the most promising ones, besides the lack of efficient knowledge management tools and standardized assessment procedures. This contribution presents a systematic way to generate and assess new processing paths including waste-to-resource technologies, based on the use of a semi-automatic ontological framework. An ontology is filled with transformation processes; then, a number of alternative paths are generated and assessed, according to a potentially available waste. The resulting list is classified according to pre-established parameters, thus presenting which are the potentially best alternatives to close the material loops and recover chemical resources. The proposed method is tested through the generation and evaluation of different routes for the treatment of plastic waste materials, with a special focus on chemical recycling.