Chemical recycling of PET to value-added products

• Published in: RSC sustainability Vol. 1; no. 9; pp. 2135 - 2147
• Main Authors: Jia, Zixian, Gao, Lin, Qin, Lijiao, Yin, Jianzhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 30.11.2023
• ISSN: 2753-8125; 2753-8125
• DOI: 10.1039/d3su00311f

The term 'plastic' includes various materials (PP, PE, PET, PVC, and more), but most of them, but most of them take very long period of time to decompose and continue to cause harm to the environment. Currently, only a small percentage of plastic waste is recycled, usually for energy or the production of lower-quality products. Chemical recycling and upcycling offers a solution where plastic can be broken down into its original building blocks and transformed into new and high-quality plastics. When compared to traditional mechanical recycling, polymer upcycling systems may provide more energy-efficient pathways and have less impact on the environment. It is heartening to see recycling and upcycling techniques gain traction in industry, and creating new catalyst-driven technologies is critical to encourage better plastics recycling. This review highlights recent advancements in the development of efficient catalysts and effective strategies for the chemical recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into monomers, fine chemicals, and carbon materials. This review has focused on the concept of upcycling, which involves utilizing PET waste as a raw material for the production of value-added products such as monomers, fine chemicals, hydrogen, or carbon materials.