Page 46 - Plastics News February 2025
P. 46
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Energy Efficiency: Industrial upcycling processes grade plastics or other desirable products.
are generally beneficial in terms of energy effi-
ciency than that of making new plastics. Pyrolysis: Pyrolysis is a process of heating plas-
tics with good result at a temperature between
Economic Growth: Upcycling leads to new jobs 350 and 400 degree Celsius in the presence
meaning production of new and more business, of hydrogen donor in the absence of oxygen
which forms part of the circular economy sys- whereby the plastic waste decomposes into
tem and supports local producers. liquid oil, natural gas and solid carbon. Some
of the forms of liquid oil that can be generated
Technologies Revolutionizing Plastic Upcy- can be utilized in the manufacturing of new plas-
cling
tics and/or fuels. It proved effective in recycling
New opportunities have appeared due to the mixed plastics that cannot be recycled regularly
development of technologies for the recycling through the normal techniques.
of plastic materials. To tackle this problem effec- Depolymerization: Recycling includes the con-
tively, several unique methods have been devel- version of the plastic polymers to their monomer
oped to make plastics reusable and transform form, purification of the monomers, before con-
plastic waste products into more usefully. Below verting them again to high quality plastics. This
are some of the key technologies making a dif- technique is especially good for reusing PET
ference:
(polyethylene terephthalate) that usually fills the
1. Chemical Recycling (Chemical Upcycling) plastic bottles.
Solvolysis: Solvolysis dissolves the plastics in sol-
vents and subdivides these plastics to the mon-
omers or further smaller molecules. Recycling
can involve the use of various processes to sort
the plastics for recycling and this process can
recycle polyolefins like polyethylene and poly-
propylene among others; this process can also
aid in the recycling of plastics mainly through a
process through which some many chemicals
can be recovered from the waste plastics.
These chemical recycling technologies are
unique options for recycling which helps in re-
Chemical recycling or as some people want to dressing the loop in waste management by con-
call it chemical upcycling is arguably the most verting waste plastics into virgin-like plastics.
reasonable form of plastic upcycling today. They also allow a way of reusing mixed and even
Chemical recycling is not mechanical recycling contaminated plastics that cannot be recycled
and in chem recycling, the polymer chains under- through conventional methods.
go large chemical reactions and are effectively
chem recycled. Such components can then be 2. Enzymatic Recycling
utilized for the synthesis of additional superior
46 PLASTICS NEWS February 2025
