ROPLASTIC: New technology for the recovery and ENHANCEMENT of polyesters and polyamides

Data di pubblicazione

16-06-2022

Codice

CH.20.083.A

Stato

Disponibile

Data di priorità

09-06-2021

Fase

Italian and PCT Patent Application process

Titolare

Politecnico di Milano

Dipartimento

Department of Chemistry Materials and Chemical Engineering

Autori

Morbidelli Massimo, Moscatelli Davide, Tollini Flavio, Storti Giuseppe

Descrizione

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.

Campo di applicazione

<p> <ul> <li> Consumer polymers industry; </li> <li> Industrial and food packaging, </li> <li> Textile industry; </li> <li> High-performance composite polymer industry for technical, automotive, construction use; </li> <li> Recovery of amino acids and proteins from biowaste for supplement production. </li> </ul> </p>

Vantaggi

<p> <ul> <li> Recycling plastic compounds that previously could not have been recycled; </li> <li> Recovering polyesters, polyamides, cotton textiles and packaging; </li> <li> Decontaminating polymers from hazardous contaminants (both light and heavy) regardless of source material and colour; </li> <li> Cost-effective; </li> <li> Eliminating a dedicated polymerisation process. </li> </ul> </p>

Stadio di sviluppo

Lab tests

Contatto

licensing.tto@polimi.it