Call for Papers

Please contact the symposium organizers with questions.

Polymers are essential materials in modern society with their production and consumption increasing exponentially. Post-consumer polymer waste is equally growing and leading to pervasive ecological impacts, threatening planetary boundaries and human health. The emerging concept of a circular bioeconomy unravels opportunities to create a sustainable society using abundant and economical bioresources while lowering the net carbon footprint by extending material life cycle. Enabling a circular bioeconomy for polymers requires an integrated, systems-based approach that considers biomass feedstock, green polymer synthesis, recycling-by-design and biodegradability while minimizing waste and energy costs. Some of the most promising and topical approaches to address these challenges include leveraging renewable biomass surrogates for petroleum-derived monomers to create synthetic biopolymers; directly utilizing native biopolymers; redesigning manufacturing and recycling processes to be less wasteful and consume less energy. Yet, for biomass-based materials there are historical challenges to address including inefficient separations and/or poor conversion yields; lowering waste and energy requirements for transformations; improving compatibility with legacy and emerging manufacturing methods; enabling economical scaling of processes; matching performance metrics for petroleum-derived polymers; ensuring benign environmental degradation. In addition, legacy waste (and currently produced) polymers must be integrated into the circular bioeconomy. State-of-the-art upcycling approaches employing efficient polymer deconstruction and/or functionalization techniques can valorize waste materials while re-integrating them into the material cycle. This symposium centers on these topics to address this multifaceted global challenge which requires collaboration from academic, industry, and government partners possessing expertise in chemistry, chemical and process engineering, environmental and materials science, among others.

Topics will include:

• Nanocellulose, lignin, chitin and other biological polymers: Extraction and characterization of materials and their hierarchical structures.
• Engineered living and/or bio-inspired materials, cell-based and biopolymer-based materials including plant or algal cell-based materials and protein-based materials.
• Functional structures from lignocellulose including functionalization and multi-functional composite materials.
• Wood nanotechnology: Wood nanostructure understanding, nanostructural control, and multi-functional materials design.
• Lignocellulosic biomass processing into feedstock for synthetic sustainable biopolymers
• Development of novel synthetic biodegradable and/or recyclable biopolymers.
• Waste-derived polymeric materials obtained from low-energy or wasteless processing methods.
• Valorization of polymer waste materials via upcycling using efficient chemical processes.
• Self-healing and adaptable (bio)polymers including depolymerizable materials, dynamic covalent network polymers, and supramolecular materials.
• Fundamental science of native and synthetic biopolymers: Mechanical, thermal, barrier, rheological, and optical properties. Nanostructuring and/or multi-scale modeling.
• Life-cycle-assessment of sustainable polymeric materials and their recycling processes and waste treatment of legacy polymers.
• Studies of biodegradation and recycling or regeneration of sustainable polymers.
• Emerging advanced applications based on biopolymers and biodegradable polymers such as additive manufacturing, batteries, electronics, biodevices, and energy management.

Invited Speakers (tentative):

• R. Konane Bay (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
• Eva Blasco (Universität Heidelberg, Germany)
• Yong Ding (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
• Stephen Eichhorn (University of Bristol, United Kingdom)
• Brett Helms (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
• Katrina Knauer (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
• Amy Landis (Colorado School of Mines, USA)
• Jeremy Luterbacher (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
• Caio Otoni (Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil)
• Elisabeth Prince (University of Waterloo, Canada)
• Fernando Vidal (Polymat, University of the Basque County, Spain)
• Chen Wang (The University of Utah, USA)
• Jonathan Wilker (Purdue University, USA)

Symposium Organizers