John Scheirs has worked extensively with poly and related polyesters. His early work involved studying the UV stability of PET and poly- ethylene naphthalate - in France and later he was involved with studying various industrial problems involving polyesters, such as photodegradation, annealing, crystallization behaviour, embrittlement, degradation by aminolysis, differential scanning calorimetry analysis, environmental stress cracking, hydrolysis, nucleating agents, transesterification, injection moulding of recycled PET compounds, solid-state polycondensation, desiccant drying of PET and melt stabilization of PET. More recently in the period 1998-2000, he was the technical manager for Coca-Cola Amatil's world-first PET reforming plant which converts post-consumer PET bottles into high-grade, high IV palletized PET for direct reuse in new bottles and injection and sheet moulding applications. John Scheirs is now the principal consultant with ExcelPlas Polymer Technology where he specializes in polymer recycling chemistry, formulation, processing and testing.
Walter Kaminsky is a professor for technical and macromolecular chemistry at the University of Hamburg. He supervises a group of 20 students and scientists in the field of metallocene/MAO catalysis and a group in the field of recycling of plastics and scrap tires by pyrolysis. He was President of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker - GDCh -, Hamburg section, Dean of the faculty of chemistry at the University of Hamburg, Director of the Institute for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, and is a member of the GDCh, DECHEMA, Naturforscher und Årzte, Verein deutscher Ingenieure, and American Chemical Society. He has published more than 200 papers/books and holds 20 patents. He has organized several international symposia in the field of olefin polymerization and pyrolysis of polymer wastes. He is advisor for authorities and companies in the fields of metallocene catalysts, polymerization of olefins, and recycling of plastics and environmental protection.
