Tuning Supercritical Water for Polymer Recycling to Monomers and Chemicals

在这个NSERC Alliance-Mitacs Accelerate项目中，我们将与Aduro Clean Technology Inc.合作。(ACT)开发一种新的经济可行的连续工艺，重点是亚/超临界水（SCW）的棘手的聚合物回收。 最初的工作将集中在水作为溶剂，因为我们已经开发了一个以前的连续工艺与Aduro使用水转化脂肪酸从玉米蒸馏废物为绿色柴油。 Aduro根据我们实验室先前的玉米转化结果，在安大略萨尼亚开发了一个小型试验装置。我们在这个项目中的目标是开发一种对环境负责的升级循环过程，可以处理各种混合塑料废物和当今和未来垃圾填埋场中发现的难处理塑料。 我们的方法将是开发一个多级反应器系统，每个阶段控制在不同的实验条件下。首先，我们将去除有价值的产品，如添加剂，碳纤维，然后将剩余的化学催化转化为有价值的化学品，包括单体和芳烃。 将研究一种用于处理该工艺废料的热解最终工艺，该工艺可被萨尼亚炼油厂利用。我们的目标是通过这种新的反应器设计过程，检查模型聚合物系统和真实的废物流，以尽量减少碳损失。我们将开发一种新的分析观察池方法，使我们能够测量溶解和解聚动力学的过程条件下，在水中的利益，以促进我们的反应器设计和过程建模。对于单体和化学品的催化工艺，将使用开发的适合放大的动力学模型研究工艺参数，包括温度、压力、催化剂类型、停留时间和水与进料比。学生们将与ACT团队合作，在他们位于安大略萨尼亚的工厂开发一个试验工厂，以展示这项技术。该项目将有助于降低加拿大的碳废物，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。

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.