ROPLASTIC: New technology for the recovery and ENHANCEMENT of polyesters and polyamides
Data di pubblicazione
16-06-2022Codice
CH.20.083.AStato
DisponibileData di priorità
09-06-2021Fase
Italian and PCT Patent Application processTitolare
Politecnico di MilanoDipartimento
Department of Chemistry Materials and Chemical EngineeringAutori
Morbidelli Massimo, Moscatelli Davide, Tollini Flavio, Storti GiuseppeDescrizione
ROPLASTIC recycles waste plastic through a flexible and simple process. It creates a market that up until now has been considered disadvantageous. The aim of the proposed technology is to enable the circular synthesis of polyesters and polyamides (approximately 20% of the polymer market) which have a high commercial value, enhancing waste that had been considered unrecoverable.
The process uses a new generation semi-chemical system that can reduce the typical recycling time from days to a mere few hours, thus saving energy, money and space. The process consists of three steps: 1) Polymer recovery: the polymer is recovered by using an inert solvent. This step eliminates volatile contaminants, partially increasing the molecular weight of the polymer and creating cyclic oligomers. 2) Purification: The solvent is separated with heavy contaminants, dyes and additives to obtain a pre-polymer with a high degree of polymerisation and a mainly cyclic oligomer fraction. The solvent is also completely recycled after purification. 3) Repolymerisation: In combination with a suitable catalyst, the cyclic oligomers are exploited in the repolymerisation process, which takes only 20-30 minutes of reaction time to complete.