New DENIN Fellow Ross Klauer Hopes to Use Enzymes and Microorganisms from the Mealworm Gut to Break Down Plastics

Picture a writhing mass of mealworms. What do you think of next? Ross Klauer, a recipient of a 2023–2025 DENIN Fellowship, thinks plastics decomposition.

Klauer’s Ph.D. research in chemical engineering is examining the breakdown of common plastics in the guts of mealworm larvae. He hopes to identify enzymes and microorganisms important in this process and ultimately build a bioreactor containing microorganisms that produce the enzymes that break down plastic.

“We’re trying to recreate the gut of the worm that already knows how to break these plastics down and convert them to other things,” Klauer said. “We’re trying to recreate that outside of the worm itself.”

The highly competitive and prestigious DENIN Fellowship offers financial support and professional development opportunities to students at UD whose Ph.D. research interests help bring science to society.

Prior to his Ph.D. work, Klauer worked for two years as a process design engineer at ExxonMobil. There he learned that for any new process to take off, it must be more economical than the current alternative. So he and his advisors, Mark Blenner and Kevin Solomon, both associate professors in chemical and biomolecular engineering at UD, are biochemically analyzing all the chemical products the plastic is broken down into in the mealworm gut, then trying to identify an economically important chemical in this mix that could be upcycled into perhaps a precursor for a pharmaceutical product or a bioplastic. With support from a U.S. Department of Energy grant to Blenner and Solomon,Klauer is primarily working with polyethylene, which makes up plastic bags.

“Because of how quickly these mealworms can eat plastic,” he said, “we know that they can do it. So it’s just a matter of figuring out how we can engineer the microorganisms to get them to do it better.”

Klauer loves the idea that he’s working on a massive problem desperate for a solution. Plastic waste isn’t going away. Instead, plastics recycling isn’t currently widespread or very efficient, and the waste is mounting. He hopes that the mealworm gut–inspired bioreactor may eliminate the need for expensive plastics sorting, metal catalysts, and perhaps pretreatment common to current plastics recycling methods.

“It’s really exciting to me to think about how we can take these solutions that nature has and tweak them a little bit to solve some of our modern problems,” Klauer said. “That’s what really drew me into the project.”

A high school trip to the Bahamas to study marine biology super-charged his interest in the environment. Klauer was discouraged to see so much plastic waste in the ocean and on the beaches and significant habitat damage from natural disasters intensified by climate change. He has pursued solutions to environmental pollution since then, both in his formal studies and in his spare time.

He earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana. There he participated in undergraduate research in optimizing biofuels production. He also interned for two summers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in a materials characterization lab, where he built many of the skills in lab procedures and conducting science that he’s applying now.

Klauer recently completed the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps regional program, which encourages entrepreneurship in the sciences. Aside from his doctoral research, he has been developing a technique to remove microplastics from water. Through the NSF program, he spoke with people at drinking water and wastewater treatment plants around the country about this issue. The program helped him “identify pain points around issues caused by plastics,” he said, “and identify the types of people who have an interest in solving the problem and where economically feasible solutions may lie.”

After completing his Ph.D. in about 2026, Klauer would like to start his own company “to upcycle waste plastic into sustainable, biobased consumer goods”—translating research to make a lasting impact on the environment. Another possible path of interest is to become a professor and run an entrepreneurial research group where scientific advances are translated into real products that help solve the world’s problems.

When he needs a break from thinking about plastics, Klauer unwinds through frequent physical activity. He recently won UD championships in both intramural soccer and cornhole. He was captain of the soccer team at Rose Hulman.

He also loves to travel to biodiverse places. He hopes one day to visit Australia and scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef to see its biodiversity.

by Joy Drohan, Eco-Write, LLC

photo: Ross Klauer