Development of effective upcycling methods for biodegradable plastic waste (for example, straws made of polylactic acid (PLA)) has emerged. In this study, a catalyst derived from sea shell waste (SSC) was used for a thermocatalytic conversion of biodegradable straw (BDS) for the recovery of monomer (for example, lactic acid). In effect, a strategy for simultaneously upcycling of biodegradable plastic waste (for example, straws made of polylactic acid (PLA)) and marine waste (for example, sea shell waste) was proposed. The SSC mainly consisted of calcium carbonate; thus, it had basicity with no acidity. Notably, a temperature of 500 °C and an SSC/BDS mass ratio of 0.5 led to the highest lactic acid recovery from BDS in this study. In particular, the use of SSC under the above-mentioned temperature and SSC/BDS mass ratio resulted in a 130 times higher lactic acid recovery than noncatalytic BDS conversion, most likely because the base sites present on SSC catalyzed the thermal cracking of PLA polymer bond. However, coke deposition was the major deactivation pathway of SSC during the thermocatalytic BDS conversion. In essence, SSC has the potential to be a catalyst used to thermocatalytically recover high-value chemicals from biodegradable plastic waste. In addition, this study can offer insight into developing waste conversion processes for the simultaneous upcycling of biodegradable plastic and marine wastes.
Fishing net is considered as one of the biggest problem in the world owing to the release of micro-plastics from abandoned fishing nets, which contributes to marine pollution. Although disposal and recycling strategies are considered as effective methods for overcoming these problems, the pyrolysis of abandoned waste has emerged as a strategy to recover massive quantities of waste materials. In this study, to develop an effective method to valorize abandoned fishing net, the effect of the use of a CaCO3 catalyst after the loading method (i.e., in-situ and ex-situ) on pyrolytic products of abandoned fishing net was investigated using micro-gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Compared to non-catalytic pyrolysis, catalytic pyrolysis increased the yield of non-condensable and condensable gas. Particularly, the ex-situ method significantly increased the yield of non-condensable gas to up to 37.2 wt.% at 900. Compared to the ex-situ method, in-situ loading method increased the yield of condensable products to up to 82 wt.%. The understanding of the difference between different catalyst loading configurations will provide useful insight on thermocatalytic waste conversion processes.
Tremendous amounts of plastic waste are generated daily. The indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste can cause serious global environmental issues, such as leakages of microplastics into the ecosystem. Thus, it is necessary to find a more sustainable way to reduce the volume of plastic waste by converting it into usable materials. Pyrolysis provides a sustainable solution for the production of carbonaceous materials (e.g., char). Plastic-waste-derived char can be used as an additive in epoxy composites to improve the properties and performance of neat epoxy resins. This review compiles relevant knowledge on the potential of additives for epoxy composites originating from plastic waste. It also highlights the potential of plastic-waste-derived char materials for use in materials in various industries.
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