Tuning Supercritical Water for Polymer Recycling to Monomers and Chemicals

调整超临界水以将聚合物回收为单体和化学品

• 批准号: 571841-2021
• 负责人: Charpentier, PaulA
• 金额: $ 16.38万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=746667
• 关键词: Tuning; Supercritical; Water; Polymer; Recycling

In this NSERC Alliance-Mitacs Accelerate project, we will work with Aduro Clean Technology Inc. (ACT) to develop a new economically viable continuous process focusing on sub/supercritical water (SCW) for intractable polymer recycling. Initial work will focus on water as the solvent, as we have developed a previous continuous process with Aduro using water for converting fatty acids from corn distillers waste into green diesel. Aduro have developed a small pilot unit in Sarnia, Ontario based on our labs previous results for corn conversion. Our goal in this project is to develop an environmentally-responsible upcycling process that can handle both diverse mixed plastic wastes and intractable plastics found in todays and tomorrows landfills. Our methodology will be to develop a multi-stage reactor system with each stage controlled under different experimental conditions. Firsty we will remove valuable products such as additives, carbon fibers, then chemically convert the remainder catalytically to valuable chemicals including monomers and aromatics. A pyrolytic end-process for treating waste materials from this process will be examined which can be utilized by Sarnia refiners. Our goal is to minimize carbon loss through this novel reactor design process, examining both model polymeric systems and real waste streams. We will develop a new analytical view-cell method to allow us to measure dissolution and depolymerization kinetics under the process conditions of interest in water to facilitate our reactor design and process modeling. For the catalytic process to monomers and chemicals, the process parameters including temperature, pressure, catalyst type, residence time, and water to feed ratios will be studied with kinetic models developed suitable for scale-up. The students will work with the ACT team to develop a pilot plant at their Sarnia, Ontario facility that can demonstrate this technology. This project will help lower Canada's carbon waste while supporting the circular economy, helping to eliminate a current waste problem while providing a new cleantech solution and value chain for the Canadian economy.

在这个 NSERC Alliance-Mitacs Accelerate 项目中，我们将与 Aduro Clean Technology Inc. (ACT) 合作，开发一种新的经济可行的连续工艺，重点关注次/超临界水 (SCW)，用于棘手的聚合物回收。 最初的工作将集中于水作为溶剂，因为我们之前已经与 Aduro 开发了一种连续工艺，利用水将玉米蒸馏器废物中的脂肪酸转化为绿色柴油。 阿杜罗根据我们实验室之前的玉米转化结果，在安大略省萨尼亚开发了一个小型试点装置。我们在这个项目中的目标是开发一种对环境负责的升级回收工艺，可以处理当今和未来垃圾填埋场中发现的各种混合塑料废物和难处理的塑料。 我们的方法是开发一个多级反应器系统，每个阶段在不同的实验条件下进行控制。首先，我们将去除添加剂、碳纤维等有价值的产品，然后将剩余物催化化学转化为有价值的化学品，包括单体和芳烃。 将检查用于处理该过程中的废料的热解最终工艺，该工艺可供萨尼亚炼油厂使用。我们的目标是通过这种新颖的反应器设计过程，检查模型聚合物系统和实际废物流，最大限度地减少碳损失。我们将开发一种新的分析视池方法，使我们能够测量水中感兴趣的工艺条件下的溶解和解聚动力学，以促进我们的反应器设计和工艺建模。对于单体和化学品的催化过程，将使用适合放大的动力学模型来研究包括温度、压力、催化剂类型、停留时间和水与进料比在内的工艺参数。学生们将与 ACT 团队合作，在安大略省萨尼亚工厂开发一个试点工厂，以展示这项技术。该项目将有助于减少加拿大的碳废物，同时支持循环经济，帮助消除当前的废物问题，同时为加拿大经济提供新的清洁技术解决方案和价值链。