{"title":"Co-upcycling of Plastic Waste and Biowaste via Tandem Transesterification Reactions","authors":"Jiaquan Li, Xingmo Zhang, Xingxu Liu, Xiuping Liao, Jun Huang, Yijiao Jiang","doi":"10.1021/jacsau.4c00459","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and glycerol are prevalent forms of plastic and biowaste, necessitating facile and effective strategies for their upcycling treatment. Herein, we present an innovative one-pot reaction system for the concurrent depolymerization of PET plastics and the transesterification of glycerol into dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), a valuable feedstock in polymer manufacturing. This process occurs in the presence of methyl acetate (MA), a byproduct of the industrial production of acetic acid. The upcycling of biowaste glycerol into glycerol acetates renders them valuable additives for application in both the biofuel and chemical industries. This integrated reaction system enhances the conversion of glycerol to acetins compared with the singular transesterification of glycerol. In this approach, cost-effective catalysts, based on perovskite-structured CaMnO<sub>3</sub>, were employed. The catalyst undergoes in situ reconstruction in the tandem PET/glycerol/MA system due to glycerolation between the metal oxides and glycerol/acetins. This process results in the formation of small metal oxide nanoparticles confined in amorphous metal glycerolates, thereby enhancing the PET depolymerization efficiency. The optimized coupled reaction system can achieve a product yield exceeding 70% for glycerol acetates and 68% for PET monomers. This research introduces a tandem pathway for the simultaneous upcycling of PET plastic waste and biowaste glycerol with minimal feedstock input and maximal reactant utilization efficiency, promising both economic advantages and positive environmental impacts.","PeriodicalId":14799,"journal":{"name":"JACS Au","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JACS Au","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.4c00459","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and glycerol are prevalent forms of plastic and biowaste, necessitating facile and effective strategies for their upcycling treatment. Herein, we present an innovative one-pot reaction system for the concurrent depolymerization of PET plastics and the transesterification of glycerol into dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), a valuable feedstock in polymer manufacturing. This process occurs in the presence of methyl acetate (MA), a byproduct of the industrial production of acetic acid. The upcycling of biowaste glycerol into glycerol acetates renders them valuable additives for application in both the biofuel and chemical industries. This integrated reaction system enhances the conversion of glycerol to acetins compared with the singular transesterification of glycerol. In this approach, cost-effective catalysts, based on perovskite-structured CaMnO3, were employed. The catalyst undergoes in situ reconstruction in the tandem PET/glycerol/MA system due to glycerolation between the metal oxides and glycerol/acetins. This process results in the formation of small metal oxide nanoparticles confined in amorphous metal glycerolates, thereby enhancing the PET depolymerization efficiency. The optimized coupled reaction system can achieve a product yield exceeding 70% for glycerol acetates and 68% for PET monomers. This research introduces a tandem pathway for the simultaneous upcycling of PET plastic waste and biowaste glycerol with minimal feedstock input and maximal reactant utilization efficiency, promising both economic advantages and positive environmental impacts.
聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET)和甘油是塑料和生物废弃物的普遍形式,因此有必要采取简便有效的策略对其进行升级再循环处理。在此,我们提出了一种创新的单锅反应系统,用于同时解聚 PET 塑料和将甘油酯交换成聚合物生产中的重要原料对苯二甲酸二甲酯(DMT)。这一过程是在醋酸甲酯(MA)存在的情况下进行的,醋酸甲酯是醋酸工业生产的副产品。将生物废弃甘油升级回收为醋酸甘油酯,使其成为生物燃料和化工行业的重要添加剂。与单一的甘油酯交换反应相比,这种综合反应系统提高了甘油到醋酸酯的转化率。在这一方法中,采用了基于过氧化物结构 CaMnO3 的高性价比催化剂。由于金属氧化物和甘油/乙炔之间的甘油化作用,催化剂在串联 PET/甘油/MA 体系中发生了原位重构。这一过程导致在无定形金属甘油酯中形成小的金属氧化物纳米颗粒,从而提高了 PET 的解聚效率。经过优化的耦合反应系统可使甘油醋酸酯的产品产率超过 70%,PET 单体的产品产率超过 68%。这项研究为 PET 塑料废料和生物废料甘油的同时升级再循环引入了串联途径,具有最小的原料投入和最高的反应物利用效率,有望带来经济优势和积极的环境影响。