Issue 1, 2023

Biologically bound nickel accelerated de-polymerization of polyethylene to high value hydrocarbons and hydrogen

Abstract

The goal of a carbon-neutral society can be realized by utilizing a circular carbon pathway, which combines recycling, biomass utilization, carbon capture and utilization. Inspired by the potential of metal-contaminated biomass and plastic waste as valuable feed-stocks, we have developed a biologically-bound nickel catalyst (Ni-phytocat) to accelerate de-polymerization of polyethylene into high value chemicals. The synergistic effect of microwaves, together with Ni-phytocat as microwave absorbers, accelerate the catalytic de-polymerization process at low temperature (250 °C). The single step process typically takes up to 70 s to transform a sample of low-density polyethylene into liquid hydrocarbons (40–60% oil yield), hydrogen (11–30% gas yield) and filamentous carbon (25–37% solid yield), depending on varying catalyst to polymer weight ratios. The Ni-phytocat enhanced the production of C6–C12 aliphatics (up to 56% selectivity) and favored the aromatization of linear alkanes to form monocyclic aromatics (up to 33% selectivity), thereby releasing more H2 (up to 74% selectivity) as gaseous fractions. The enhancement of (de)hydrogenation, de-carboxylation and cyclization, utilizing Ni-phytocat can be established as a proof of concept to advance and enable selective transformation of polymeric consumer products, paving the way to harness complete circular chemical potential of these future feed-stocks.

Graphical abstract: Biologically bound nickel accelerated de-polymerization of polyethylene to high value hydrocarbons and hydrogen

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Aug. 2022
Accepted
19 Okt. 2022
First published
04 Nov. 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Sustain., 2023,1, 117-127

Biologically bound nickel accelerated de-polymerization of polyethylene to high value hydrocarbons and hydrogen

P. Johar, E. L. Rylott, C. R. McElroy, A. S. Matharu and J. H. Clark, RSC Sustain., 2023, 1, 117 DOI: 10.1039/D2SU00001F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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