Chemist Thomas Maschmeyer is recognised with an AO

University of Sydney chemist Thomas Maschmeyer has been recognised with an AO for his technology that fully recycles plastics.

The University of Sydney’s Thomas Maschmeyer has been honoured with an AO

University of Sydney chemist Thomas Maschmeyer, who has developed technology to hugely improve plastic recycling, has been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours list.

Professor Maschmeyer, honoured as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), said an estimated 80 per cent of household plastic waste currently cannot be ­recycled.

But his process, which relies on extremely hot water in a “supercritical state” to process the waste, can deal with it all.

“We can take 100 per cent,” Professor Maschmeyer said.

Even the type of plastic packaging for food that has a thin layer of shiny aluminium to preserve freshness is not a problem for Professor Maschmeyer’s CAT-HTR technology, which is being commercialised through Licella Holdings, a company he co-founded in 2007.

Aluminium and other non-plastic material is separated by the process, which turns the plastic into oils that can, in turn, be transformed into new plastics. There is no limit to the number of times the product can be recycled.

The technology will soon be operating on a large scale at Wilton in the UK, in partnership with Mura Technology.

Professor Maschmeyer’s process can also be used to recycle other waste.

In Canada, Licella is in partnership with Arbios Biotech to turn wood pulp – waste from a giant pulp mill in Prince George, British Columbia, into oils, including sustainable aviation fuel.

Professor Maschmeyer is also a leader in rechargeable battery technology and co-founded another company, Gelion, in 2015 to commercialise new types of batteries.

He said Gelion had developed sulphur cathodes, which when used in batteries with lithium anodes lead to significantly higher performance.

Professor Maschmeyer said they had two to three times the energy density by weight compared to lithium batteries currently in use, and were also expected to be cheaper than lithium batteries currently in use that relied on other types of anodes.

Professor Maschmeyer was awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in 2020.

Other academic figures and researchers to be recognised with an AO in this years King’s Birthday Honours list include:

• Former University of Sydney deputy vice-chancellor and head of its college of health sciences, Don Nutbeam.

• Monash University micro­biologist and deputy dean in the faculty of medicine, nursing and health sciences Ross Coppel

• University of Melbourne mathema­tician and pro vice-chancellor (research capability) Kate Smith-Miles.