What is chemical recycling? Is it sustainable? Can circular economy in chemical recycling be achieved at a local scale?
Maurizio Crippa PhD, CEO at Gr3n Recycling joins me on this episode to share his experience working as a materials scientist trying to solve the biggest problems through innovative solution. The result is Gr3n recycling with a vision of making plastics circular.
Moving from linear to circular
Chemical recycling of PET is a process that can use various types of depolymerization techniques to break down the polymers of waste PET into useful chemicals, in the form of oligomers and monomers. With respect to traditional, mechanical recycling, the advantage of chemical recycling is that the same quality of virgin PET can be achieved. In particular, we are using an alkaline hydrolysis that normally takes 3-5 hours at temperature of 210-250 oC (N. Thachnatharen et al 2021 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 1127 012002) and, thanks to gr3n microwave assisted reactors, we can obtain Terephthalic Acid (TPA) and Monoethylene Glycol (MEG) starting from bottles and textile in less than 10 minutes and working at less than 200 oC.(Source-GR3n)
About Maurizio
Maurizio has more than 15 years of academic research experience on functional and structural materials (i.e., organic materials for opto-electronic, conductive polymers and hybrid inorganic materials).
Connect with Maurizio: https://gr3n-recycling.com/ | https://bit.ly/368FUQ8
Artwork courtesy – www.terregeneration.com a content agency specialised in telling stories in climate, biodiversity and sustainability.
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Mission Shunya 