Practical Design of Green Catalysts for PET Recycling and Energy Conversion

Abstract

The recycling of chemicals and generation of alternative energy are central topics in the efforts toward sustainable development. Among these, research on plastics recycling and fuel cells has received significant attention, with the aim of designing novel catalysts to improve yield and efficiency. We highlight our work on these areas focusing on the chemical depolymerization of polyethylene terephthalate PET to recover its constituent monomer and the development of high-performance anode catalysts for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells PEMFC . We demonstrate various flexible yet practical synthesis strategies e.g. ultrasound-assisted deposition and biopolymer coating that were used to obtain catalytic properties optimized for these applications. The effectiveness and simplicity of these methods render the catalysts to be truly green from synthesis up to process application.

Managing Plastic Waste─Sorting, Recycling, Disposal, and Product Redesign

“…The polyester PET is commonly depolymerized by alcoholysis, i.e., methanolysis (with methanol) to dimethyl terephthalate of glycolysis (with ethylene glycol) to bishydroxyethylene terephthalate BHET. , The reaction is generally carried out at an elevated temperature (∼200 °C) in the presence of catalysts, traditionally a Lewis metal salt such as Zn acetate . The methanolysis requires a complex product recovery and purification train, which becomes very challenging when dealing with copolymers, e.g., that contain some isophthalate (besides terephthalate) or some diethylene glycol (besides ethylene glycol).…”

Sustainable Fibres for Textile Industry

“…Closed loop, or bottle-to-bottle, entails reusing post-consumer waste within the same system. Open loop recycling, on the other hand, incorporates recycled material into different product systems, like bottle-to-fiber recycling [37][38][39][40][41][42][43].…”

Two Stages Thermal and Catalytic Cracking of Polyethylene Terephthalate to Fuel Production

“…Figure 1 illustrates the concept of recycling, Extensive use of (PET) results in unused materials, which can be difficult to manage [10].…”