Waste-to-Energy: Production of Fuel Gases from Plastic Wastes

A new mechanochemical method was developed to convert polymer wastes, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), to fuel gases (H2, CH4, and CO) under ball-milling with KMnO4 at room temperature. By using various solid-state characterizations (XPS, SEM, EDS, FTIR, and NMR),...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Polymers 2021-10, Vol.13 (21), p.3672
Main Authors: Chow, Cheuk-Fai, Lam, Chow-Shing, Lau, Kai-Chung, Gong, Cheng-Bin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ball milling
Carbon monoxide
Density functional theory
Fuels
Gases
Hydrocarbons
Hydrogen
Hydrogen atoms
Landfill
Methane
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Oxidation
Oxidizing agents
Polyethylenes
Polymers
Polyvinyl chloride
Potassium permanganate
Room temperature
Sensors
Solvents
Substrates
Waste to energy
X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A new mechanochemical method was developed to convert polymer wastes, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), to fuel gases (H2, CH4, and CO) under ball-milling with KMnO4 at room temperature. By using various solid-state characterizations (XPS, SEM, EDS, FTIR, and NMR), and density functional theory calculations, it was found that the activation followed the hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) mechanism. Two metal oxidant molecules were found to abstract two separate hydrogen atoms from the α–CH and β–CH units of substrates, [–βCH2–αCH(R)–]n, where R = H in PE, R = γCH3 in PP, and R = Cl in PVC, resulting in a di-radical, [–βCH•–αC•(R)–]. Subsequently, the two unpaired electrons of the di-radical were recombined into an alkene intermediate, [–βCH = αC(R)–], which underwent further oxidation to produce H2, CH4, and CO gases.
ISSN:2073-4360
2073-4360
DOI:10.3390/polym13213672