Journal of the Japan Institute of Energy
Online ISSN : 1882-6121
Print ISSN : 0916-8753
ISSN-L : 0916-8753
Original Paper
Chemical Recycling of Waste Polypropylenes by Controlled Thermal Degradation
Daisuke SASAKIYoshihiro SUZUKIToshiki HAGIWARAShoichiro YANOTakashi SAWAGUCHI
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2008 Volume 87 Issue 3 Pages 208-214

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Abstract

For recycling waste plastics, development of new chemical recycling technologies is expected in order to meet the goals of a society that is based on resource recycling. In order to add value to waste polypropylenes, we tried to synthesis end-reactive oligomers by controlled thermal degradation of waste food trays, battery cases, washer tanks, and plastic bottle caps. Thermal degradation was performed at 370 and 390 °C for 1 to 3 h under reduced pressure. The average number of double bonds per molecule of obtained oligomer ranged from 1.66 to 1.2. This shows that 69 to 36 mol% of oligomer contained telechelics having double bonds at either end. The number average molecular weight and molecular distribution decreased remarkably from the raw materials and ranged from 21700 to 1400 and from 3.3 to 1.4, respectively. The melting temperature of the crystals decreased from 160 to 130 °C, depending on molecular weight. The obtained oligomer was useful as an end-reactive oligomer. Thus, controlled thermal degradation is potentially useful as a method for the chemical recycling of waste polypropylene products.

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© 2008 The Japan Institute of Energy
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