UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Hilal Ezgi Toraman, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and of chemical engineering at Penn State, is one of five faculty recognized as a rising star in chemical engineering by the journal ACS Engineering Au for her work developing fundamental research on the utilization of pyrolysis — a chemical recycling process that heats plastic waste in an oxygen-free environment to turn it into valuable fuels, chemicals and new plastic feedstock.
Toraman’s research paper, "Intrinsic Kinetics of Polyethylene Terephthalate Pyrolysis via Micropyrolysis and Multivariate Chromatographic Analysis," was included in the special issue for being the first in-depth investigation to experimentally establish and validate conditions under which intrinsic kinetics — reaction rates governed solely by molecular-level chemical transformations — can be reliably measured along with providing the most detailed molecular level product characterization data available of the decomposition of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) during pyrolysis. The polymer is used in common items such as plastic bottles, carpets, clothes and packaging, making the investigation an important step towards designing a more sustainable recycling process for plastic waste, the researchers said.
Toraman said it is both an honor and motivating to see her team’s effort acknowledged.
“Like everyone, the research community is also trying to navigate the vast amount of information we receive every day, making high-quality data more important than ever, especially in the era of AI, where data is used to train models and support decision-making,” Toraman said. “It is exciting to be selected as a rising star and see that the good, reliable science you’ve produced is being highlighted as a prominent, impactful work. I am very appreciative of the recognition.”
According to Toraman, addressing plastic waste is a pressing need, as over 40 million tons are produced annually in the United States, and plastic production continues to increase. Often, plastic waste is mixed so PET is accumulated along with other polymers such as polypropylene, polyethylene and polystyrene, among others, that each have distinct chemical and reactionary differences to pyrolysis. One of the biggest challenges is developing a system that can handle all those differences, along with ever-changing environmental factors and input variables, Toraman said.
“We really need a clear, complete understanding of the chemistry,” Toraman said. “Then we will know how to create and control the process at scale in a way that is more resilient and can accommodate any changes to feedstock, composition or market conditions.”
Toraman credited the development of her team's systematic analysis to their broad interests and abilities — that finding a solution to mitigate mixed plastic waste required a mixture of understanding.
“We are one of the very few groups in the whole world that can identify the conditions where we isolate the underlying chemistry and track products to understand how plastics break down,” Toraman said. “It required understanding principles from reaction engineering, from data science and from analytical chemistry. We integrated these strengths to develop this framework.”
Though the study focused on PET, the analytical framework has broader applications and can be applied to different polymers and mixtures. Toraman said she believes this is an important step toward establishing a sound foundation for solving one of the prime challenges facing our society.
Toraman is also a co-funded faculty member in Penn State’s Institutes of Energy and the Environment. Toraman received her bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. She received her doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Ghent University in Belgium. She was a postdoctoral researcher in chemical and biomolecular engineering at University of Delaware.