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Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under award number DE-SC0021166.

Analysis of institutional authors

Hernandez, BorjaAuthor

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July 8, 2024
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Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analyses of Thermochemical Upcycling Technologies of Low-Density Polyethylene Waste

Publicated to:Acs Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 11 (18): 7170-7181 - 2023-04-21 11(18), DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c00636

Authors: Hernandez, Borja; Kots, Pavel; Selvam, Esun; Vlachos, Dionisios G; Ierapetritou, Marianthi G

Affiliations

Univ Delaware, Ctr Plast Innovat, Newark, DE 19716 USA - Author
Univ Delaware, Dept Chem & Biomol Engn, Newark, DE 19716 USA - Author

Abstract

In this study we compare techno-economics and life cycle assessment of thermochemical depolymerization technolo-gies, including pyrolysis, gasification, hydrocracking, hydrothermal liquefaction, and hydrogenolysis, to generate various products from low-density polyethylene (LDPE) waste. We elucidate the effects of production scale, collection cost, and concentration of LDPE in plastic waste. Pyrolysis of LDPE to olefins followed by their conversion to lubricant oils is the most profitable technology. Hydrogenolysis, producing a small fraction of lubricant oils, becomes profitable at plant sizes above 25 kt/y and produces the lowest CO2 emissions. Hydrocracking is the second most environmentally friendly technology but becomes economically competitive at sufficiently large scales, and the supply chain for collecting plastics is optimized. Gasification of LDPE to H2 produces high emissions, and the price of H2 of similar to 3 $/kg is higher than current markets and recently announced goals. Similarly, hydrothermal liquefaction also gives high emissions, making carbon capture systems imperative for both technologies. Our results demonstrate that lowering the cost of sorting LDPE from plastic waste, collecting waste near big cities, building sufficiently large plants, and achieving high selectivity to value-added products are critical to successful plastic waste management.

Keywords

Catalytic pyrolysisCircular economyEnergyFeasibilitFuelsGasificationHydrocrackinHydrocrackingHydrogenolysisPlastic wastePlastics wastePyrolysisRecoveryRecyclingUpcyclingValorization

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Acs Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 21/170, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Engineering, Chemical.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 4.45. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 7.25 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 14.58 (source consulted: Dimensions Sep 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-09-04, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 39
  • Scopus: 50

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-09-04:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 96.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 99 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: United States of America.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Hernández Blázquez, Borja) .