Thomko Petro Chemical Blog

I stopped by the Plastic Spork Blog (not a misprint), and read the following article - CT

Meg Sobkowicz was on a fast career track in the oil industry. A bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University landed her a job at Schlumberger running wire-line logs on oil wells in New Mexico.

Next stop was to be Casper, Wyoming, the heart of the U.S. West’s oil and natural gas boom. But she jumped off the track.

“I knew that working in the oil industry was not in sync with my values,” Sobkowicz, 28, said. “I wanted something with an alternative-energy connection.”

Now, as a doctoral student at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Sobkowicz is one of a growing number of chemists who are developing bio-based plastics that can supplant those made from oil.

Sobkowicz is working on improving the durability of plastics derived from corn and other plants, developing nanoscale fibers from cotton to reinforce them.

Finish article at Plastic Spork Blog