ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,528,928, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.).
"Methods for depolymerizing polyesters" was invented by Tobin J. Marks (Evanston, Ill.), Yanshan Gao (Evanston, Ill.), Yosi Kratish (Evanston, Ill.) and Jiaqi Li (Evanston, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for depolymerizing a polyester may comprise heating a polyester at a temperature and for a period of time in the presence of a supported metal-dioxo catalyst, optionally, in the presence of H2, to induce hydrogenolysis of ester groups in the polyester and provide monomers of the polyester."
The patent was filed on April 12, 2021, under Ap...