Acetolysis of waste polyethylene terephthalate for upcycling and life-cycle assessment study.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37277365.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-38998-1 and PMC identifier 10241940.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
To reduce environmental pollution and reliance on fossil resources, polyethylene terephthalate as the most consumed synthetic polyester needs to be recycled effectively. However, the existing recycling methods cannot process colored or blended polyethylene terephthalate materials for upcycling. Here we report a new efficient method for acetolysis of waste polyethylene terephthalate into terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol diacetate in acetic acid. Since acetic acid can dissolve or decompose other components such as dyes, additives, blends, etc., Terephthalic acid can be crystallized out in a high-purity form. In addition, Ethylene glycol diacetate can be hydrolyzed to ethylene glycol or directly polymerized with terephthalic acid to form polyethylene terephthalate, completing the closed-loop recycling. Life cycle assessment shows that, compared with the existing commercialized chemical recycling methods, acetolysis offers a low-carbon pathway to achieve the full upcycling of waste polyethylene terephthalate.