The team of Professor Fu Yao and Associate Researcher Deng Jin from the University of Science and Technology of China, together with Professor Li Shen from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, recently reported a plan to realize the upcycling of waste PET plastics.
Related results were published in Nature Communications.
PET plastic has brought great convenience to human life, but it also faces problems such as large consumption and difficulty in recycling. Through the current mature PET recycling method, the downcycling of "waste beverage bottles to polyester textiles" can be realized. However, due to the limitations of process technology and production costs, it is currently difficult to realize recycling and upgrading recycling in industry.
The researchers used acetic acid to depolymerize waste PET plastics, and the depolymerization of PET in organic acids went through a melting-dissolving-precipitation process. Through this scheme, the efficient recovery of various waste PET materials directly to high-purity terephthalic acid is realized. Another product of PET acetic acid depolymerization is the third-generation environmentally friendly strong solvent ethylene glycol diacetate with high added value. The preparation scheme of acetic acid depolymerization waste PET material is also very economically attractive for the production of terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol diacetate, which are commonly used in industry.
On this basis, the researchers proposed a closed-loop technical scheme of "waste PET acetic acid depolymerization-polymerization regeneration", and conducted a life cycle assessment of the process.
The results show that compared with the process of preparing PET polyester from fossil resources, the energy consumption of non-renewable energy and global warming potential of this process can be reduced by more than 70% and global warming potential by more than 40%, respectively. , with the lowest impact on the environment.
This research provides a new way to realize the closed-loop recycling of waste PET plastics and polyester fabrics with lower industrialization cost, strong economic attractiveness, greener and low-carbon treatment process, and stronger tolerance to raw material sources.
The scientific research team has initially implemented a kilogram-level engineering experiment, and at the beginning of the experimental design, it chose acetic acid, the solvent for the current industrial production of terephthalic acid, as the solvent for decomposing waste polyester, fully referring to the current production equipment and process parameters.
According to the introduction, the research results can be quickly verified and promoted based on the existing industrialized equipment and relatively simple transformation.
Relying on this work, the first author of the thesis, Master Peng Yuantao, won the Gold Award for the Higher Education Main Track in the 8th Anhui "Internet +" College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition with the project "Zhongke Plastic Source-The Terminator of Waste Plastics" Won the Gold Award in the 10th "Challenge Cup·Hua'an Securities" Anhui University Student Business Plan Competition, and won the Bronze Award in the 13th "Challenge Cup" National University Student Business Plan Competition.
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