Upcycling of waste polyolefin plastics still meets with economic and technological challenges in practice. In this work, the catalytic hydrogenolysis-isomerization of nondegradable polyolefin plastic waste to high-value gasoline, diesel, and light lubricants with highly branched chain is achieved over a bifunctional Rh/Nb2 O5 catalyst under relatively mild conditions. Owing to the high efficiency of metallic Rh active sites, the dehydrogenation/hydrogenation of long carbon chains of polyolefins is enhanced. With the assistance of strong Brønsted acidity of Nb2 O5 , the cleavage of C-C bonds, skeletal rearrangements, as well as the β-scission of alkylcarbenium ions occurs, which boosts the one-step solvent-free catalytic hydrogenolysis and isomerization of polyolefins. In addition, the preliminary economic analysis shows that this technology is economical, feasible, and has great potential in accelerating the transition to a circular plastics economy for sustainable development.
Keywords: heterogeneous catalysis; hydrolysis; isomerization; plastics upcycling; rhodium.
© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.