(24e) A Technoeconomic Analysis of Biodegradable Polymers Production From CO2 and Waste Plastics
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2012
2012 Spring Meeting & 8th Global Congress on Process Safety
12th Topical Conference on Gas Utilization
CO2 Conversion
Monday, April 2, 2012 - 4:00pm to 4:30pm
This paper evaluates the economic viability of manufacturing biodegradable polymers (mostly polycarbonates) from CO2 and waste plastics. Waste plastics recycling are beneficial to environment and economy as well. Thermal processes have been used for feedstock recycling from waste plastics, such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. Olefins are very useful feedstock in industry; however, it’s expensive to produce olefins by using conventional hydrocarbons cracking technology. In our simulation, olefins are generated from pyrolysis of waste plastics with thermal energy supplied from a solar concentrator, thus no net CO2 is produced in the pyrolysis. Biodegradable polymers are then produced from the polymerization of CO2 and olefins directly in a catalytic reactor. This method provides an alternative method for CO2 sequestration and utilization. A detailed economic analysis using VMGSim software is presented.