Most plastics produced today contain additives that kill catalysts, stymying chemical recycling. But a new study finds that catalytic cracking over solid acid catalysts can stand up to many of the plastic additives on the market.
The findings could help guide researchers toward processes that can recycle mixtures of plastics. “We need to be able to treat the mess, the real plastic of the landfill with additives and impurities and some soil,” says study senior author Dionisios Vlachos, a chemical engineer at the Univ. of Delaware. “At the end of the day, if you want to have practical applications, that’s what you need to do.”
The world produces over 400 million tons of plastic annually, only about 10% of which is recycled. One major reason most plastics end up landfilled, incinerated, or littering the environment is that almost all plastic products include proprietary mixes of additives. These additives offer benefits such as ultraviolet (UV) light protection or water resistance, but around 80% have negative impacts on the catalysts used to break plastics down into monomers for recycling, Vlachos claims...
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