1 research outputs found
Neutral Hydrolysis of Post-Consumer Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste in Different Phases
Post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate
(PET) was hydrolyzed
in
pure water over a wide range of temperatures (190–400 °C)
and pressures (1–35 MPa) to produce terephthalic acid (TPA).
Solid or molten PET was subjected to water as a saturated vapor, superheated
vapor, saturated liquid, compressed liquid, and supercritical fluid.
The highest TPA yields were observed for the hydrolysis of molten
PET in saturated liquid water. Isothermal and non-isothermal hydrolysis
of PET was also explored. Rapidly heating the reactor contents at
about 5–10 °C/s (“fast” hydrolysis) led
to high TPA yields, as did isothermal PET hydrolysis, but within 1
min instead of 30 min. Notably, these conditions resulted in the lowest
environmental energy impact metric observed to date for uncatalyzed
hydrolysis