Abstract:
Plastic waste is a rising environmental concern that has led to the development of chemical recycling. However, the Chemical recycling of post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into terephthalic acid (TPA) is still challenging. This study focuses on mechanochemical ball milling to demonstrate a highly efficient solid-state hydrolysis method for converting post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into terephthalic acid. Various Solid-sate reagents such as potassium methoxide, sodium carbonate, and potassium carbonate were investigated for hydrolysis efficacy. However, sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate enabled the conversion but resulted in poor filtration due to the difficulty in precipitating the depolymerized product with HCl. Potassium methoxide was the most effective solid-state reagent, leading to a high conversion of waste PET to its monomer TPA with a high yield of 94%. Moreover, using potassium methoxide resulted in easier filtration and recovery of the depolymerized products compared to sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate. It was found that using half of the stoichiometric amount of potassium methoxide was sufficient to achieve an excellent conversion rate as compared to Mg (OH)2, Ca (OH)2, Li (OH), KOH, sodium carbonate, and potassium carbonate. All solid-state reagents, such as sodium and potassium hydroxide, were used at their total stoichiometric amount under optimized conditions. The resulting mechanochemical degraded product was characterized by various analytical techniques, including FTIR, HNMR, mass spectrometry, and TGA, confirming the successful depolymerization of waste PET into TPA. This study provides a promising solution to the plastic waste problem and shows excellent potential for the sustainable cost effect of recycling PET waste.
Page(s):
42-42
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Abstract Book on International Conference on Food and Applied Sciences (ICFAS-23) 3-5 August 23, Volume: 0, Issue: 0, Year: 2023