Some of Houston's top leaders in energy will soon descend upon the University of Houston for the latest UH energy symposium: Plastics Circularity.
The free event, hosted by UH Division of Energy and Innovation and the Energy Transition Institute, will take place April 17 from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Student Center South's Houston Room on the second floor. The symposium will focus on the science, policy and business perspectives on plastics circularity, which deals with the plastic waste challenge at large.
The symposium's keynote speaker will be Torkel Rhenman, executive vice president of advanced polymer solutions at LyondellBasell, a leading company in the global chemical industry.
"Our mechanical and chemical recycling technologies aren't just solving waste challenges – they're creating solutions for a better tomorrow," Rhenman said. "We are transforming what was once discarded into innovative materials for everyday sustainability living."
The symposium will have two topic sessions split by a lunch keynote from Senami Akle, director and head of design for sustainability at Logitech.
The first session will focus on standards, policy and business models in plastics circularity.
That session will feature four speakers: Mary Ellen Ternes, partner at Earth and Water Law LLC; Scott Trenor, technical director at Association of Plastic Recyclers; Ganesh Nagarajan, senior director of Plastics at WM; and Scott Coye-Huhn, vice president of energy, biomaterials and circularity at SCS Global Services.
"Sustainability is important for primary and plastic product manufacturers and recyclers ... as this will better ensure there is both a market for production and reproduction."
— Mary Ellen Ternes, partner at Earth and Water Law LLC
"Sustainability is important for primary and plastic product manufacturers and recyclers, including production and recycling consistent with international standards, as this will better ensure there is both a market for production and reproduction," Ternes said. "This will also mitigate potential material risk from pollution, such as environmental and consumer product litigation, for which risk increases where sustainability fails."
The second session will cover science, technology and case studies in plastics circularity. This session will also feature four speakers: Wei Cai, chief technology officer at Technip Energies; Michelle E. Seitz, program director of NIST Circular Economy Program in Plastics at National Institute of Standards and Technology; Katrina Knauer, chief technology officer of BOTTLE consortium at National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and, Kathryn Wright, vice president of polymers R&D at Kraton.
The symposium will close with an expert panel about the path forward for plastics circularity. The panel will be moderated by Celeste Schurman, producer of Houston Matters at Houston Public Media.
The panelists will be Helmut Brenner, ESG manager at Shell Chemicals Ltd.; Jace Tunnell, director of community engagement of the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M Corpus Christi; Meltem Urgun Demirtas, department manager of sustainable materials and processes at Argonne National Laboratory; and Andrew Oliver, technology manager of sustainable feedstocks at The Dow Chemical Company.
"Shell supports growing circularity in the global plastics market and is working with partners to encourage the development of a more circular plastics economy," Brenner said. "Chemical recycling is a viable way to keep these valuable resources in circulation without sacrificing quality."
