Process Simulation of Terephthalic Acid Using Neutral Hydrolysis of Polyethylene Terephthalate Bottle Waste Method

Abstract

Ademola Bolanle Raheem and Ifeanyichukwu Edeh

To mitigate the environment's unique challenges caused by polyethylene terephthalate [PET] bottle litter and to protect the petroleum feedstock. The chemical recycling technology was used to transform PET into practical items with a siz- able and successful industrial application. In order to model the chemical neutral hydrolysis depolymerization process of PET plastic wastes utilizing a continuous stir tank reactor for the synthesis of pure terephthalic acid [TPA] and EG for commercial use, this work used ASPEN PLUS V10. The data for the modeling came from an experimental chemical recycling project employing the neutral hydrolysis process to depolymerize PET bottle trash. PET waste was degraded using excess water [H2 O] and zinc acetate [Zn [Ac]2] as the active catalyst. A mean PET particle size of 127.5 m, 1000 kg/h of PET depolymerized at an H2 O: PET [w/w] ratio of 8:1, 513.15 K temperature, 32.0 bar pressure, and 0.5 h residence time were the reaction's ideal working parameters. Regarding PET, it is a first-order reaction. The reaction yielded 782.72 kg/h of TPA, 292.43 kg/h of EG, and a depolymerization of PET of 90.54%. TPA and EG had selectivity of 0.7280 and 0.2720, respectively. Filtration, distillation, and crystallization techniques were used to separate the mixture of components. The heat from the conveyance, reaction, and separation processes was obtained. This effort increased the yield of TPA, the amount of water removed for reuse, the amount of EG generated, and the amount of processing heat required. The procedures and their operating circumstances can be used to scale up commercial processes in the future.

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