Development of upcycling technology for highly functional waste plastics

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January 21, 2026

Successful conversion to high-value-added chemicals using solid acid catalysts

As polyoxymethylene (POM), an engineering plastic, is highly strong and water-resistant, it is widely used for automotive components, electrical appliances, and commodities (joints, buckles, gears, etc.), and its demand is expanding globally. Meanwhile, POM faces sustainability issues: it has a high decomposition temperature and emits a large amount of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) during decomposition because current recycling technology requires substantial energy to break it down. It also requires organic solvents with high environmental burdens and a large amount of catalysts.

The joint research group of researchers from the RIKEN CSRS and Kyushu University successfully developed a chemical upcycling technology to convert POM to value-added chemicals, including solvents, pesticides, and host molecule pillar arenes, by decomposing POM using a technique that combines a polymeric solid acid catalyst, m-phenolsulfonic acid-formaldehyde resin (PAFR II), and microwave technology. In addition, the research group demonstrated that this technique also works well with a composite material, carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP), including microplastics and carbon fibers with complex compositions.

The findings of this study are expected to contribute to the dissemination of these new recycling techniques that create useful materials from used plastics, the application of these measures as environmentally-friendly technologies to address microplastics and CFRP processing issues, the establishment of a sustainable chemical industry, and the realization of a recycling-based society.

Original article: Green Chemistry　doi: 10.1039/D5GC06065F; A. Sen, A. Ohno, A. Chapman, Y. Xu, J. Zhang, N. Maeda, J. T. Carlson, Y. M. A. Yamada,; "Upcycling Waste Polyoxymethylene to Value-added Chemicals Using Reusable Polymeric Acid Catalysts at ppm Levels".
Contact: Yoichi M. A. Yamada; Team Director
Abhijit Sen; Research Scientist
Green Nanocatalysis Research Team