Circular recycling of polyester textile waste using a sustainable catalyst
2021 (English)In: Journal of Cleaner Production, ISSN 0959-6526, E-ISSN 1879-1786, Vol. 283, article id 124579Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
A tremendous amount of polyester textile waste is discarded every year, which has caused a serious problem for the environment. In this study, the feasibility of circular recycling of polyester textile waste is investigated through a glycolysis process in the presence of environmentally friendly Mg–Al double oxides pellets as catalyst. Even though the catalytic performance of Mg–Al double oxides pellets is slightly lower than their granules at 240 °C, pellets were used as they benefit from a good recyclability. The pellet catalysts could be cycled three times without losing structural integrity or catalytic activity in the glycolysis of (poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET)). However, to restore the catalytic activity after three cycles, the catalyst was regenerated through a heat treatment after the glycolysis reaction. After that the catalyst showed a comparable catalytic activity as that of virgin catalyst. In the glycolysis process, the monomer bis(hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) is generated and recovered. The molar yield of BHET was in the reaction over 80 mol%. From the recovered BHET, regenerated PET (r-PET) with an intrinsic viscosity (IV) of 0.67 was synthesized. The r-PET showed a very good spinnability in the melt spinning test. The quality of the obtained r-PET fibers was comparable to virgin PET fibers.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier Ltd , 2021. Vol. 283, article id 124579
Keywords [en]
Circular recycling, Glycolysis, Melt spinning, Mg–Al double Oxides, Polyester textile waste, Repolymerization, Aluminum oxide, Ethylene, Heat treatment, Pathology, Pelletizing, Plastic recycling, Polyesters, Spinning (fibers), Textiles, Catalytic performance, Intrinsic viscosity, PET fibers, Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), Polyester textiles, Recyclability, Spinnability, Terephthalate, Catalyst activity
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-50446DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124579Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85093944767OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-50446DiVA, id: diva2:1499364
Note
Funding details: Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning, 2016/1489; Funding details: 646226; Funding text 1: This work is supported by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant No. 646226 ) and Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (grant No. 2016/1489 ).
2020-11-092020-11-092023-05-25Bibliographically approved