Converting waste PET plastics into automobile fuels and antifreeze components

Zhiwen Gao; Bing Ma; Shuang Chen; Jingqing Tian; Chen Zhao

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31078-w

Converting waste PET plastics into automobile fuels and antifreeze components

Nat Commun. 2022 Jun 10;13(1):3343. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31078-w.

Authors

Zhiwen Gao^{1

2}, Bing Ma^{3

4}, Shuang Chen^{1

2}, Jingqing Tian^{1

2}, Chen Zhao^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China.
² Institute of Eco-chongming, Shanghai, 202162, China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China. bma@chem.ecnu.edu.cn.
⁴ Institute of Eco-chongming, Shanghai, 202162, China. bma@chem.ecnu.edu.cn.
⁵ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Processes, School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China. czhao@chem.ecnu.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Eco-chongming, Shanghai, 202162, China. czhao@chem.ecnu.edu.cn.

Abstract

With the aim to solve the serious problem of white plastic pollution, we report herein a low-cost process to quantitatively convert polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into p-xylene (PX) and ethylene glycol (EG) over modified Cu/SiO₂ catalyst using methanol as both solvent and hydrogen donor. Kinetic and in-situ Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) studies demonstrate that the degradation of PET into PX involves tandem PET methanolysis and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) selective hydro-deoxygenation (HDO) steps with the in-situ produced H₂ from methanol decomposition at 210 °C. The overall high activities are attributed to the high Cu⁺/Cu⁰ ratio derived from the dense and granular copper silicate precursor, as formed by the induction of proper NaCl addition during the hydrothermal synthesis. This hydrogen-free one-pot approach allows to directly produce gasoline fuels and antifreeze components from waste poly-ester plastic, providing a feasible solution to the plastic problem in islands.