Polymer Scientist Applies Scientific Method To Solve Greatest Environmental Challenges While Making Lives Better
The impact surrounding her experiment provided the young Knauer with an impression that science could solve our toughest environmental problems while making people’s lives better. I was always passionate about environmentalism. While at Florida State University I was fortunate to do polymer research at a new campus institute focused on materials science. There I learned that polymers were the primary components of plastics.
Kat Knauer holds the first prototype of the TPU polymer developed from hard-to-recycle film waste like plastic grocery bags. The final polymer was upcycled in the sole of running shoes . Photos from Novoloop Kat Knauer and Allison Werner are studying how the Pseudomonas putida bacterial strain, engineered at NREL, will perform at breaking down a variety of oxidized plastics in microgravity conditions on the International Space Station. Photo by Bryan Bechtold, NREL
My research falls in higher technology readiness level ranges. Everything I do with BOTTLE looks at DOE-funded technologies with a TRL of maybe 3. I take these to strategic partners and say, with this much money we could get you up to TRL 6, pre-pilot level, and we can help you deploy and commercialize.
Also, the model we’ve adopted in BOTTLE, which I alluded to before, is that after executing that agreement, I don’t disappear. I remain their point person. I lead the project and I mentor the researchers and the postdocs, and I write the papers and I make the presentations. I think a consistent line of communication with the person that built up this trust with them is something they’ve really come to value. And I really appreciate it.At BOTTLE we have two challenges happening in tandem.