IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6911-d832380.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Chemical Recycling of a Textile Blend from Polyester and Viscose, Part II: Mechanism and Reactivity during Alkaline Hydrolysis of Textile Polyester

Author

Listed:
  • Jenny Bengtsson

    (RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Argongatan 30, SE-431 22 Mölndal, Sweden)

  • Anna Peterson

    (RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Argongatan 30, SE-431 22 Mölndal, Sweden)

  • Alexander Idström

    (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden)

  • Hanna de la Motte

    (RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Argongatan 30, SE-431 22 Mölndal, Sweden)

  • Kerstin Jedvert

    (RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Argongatan 30, SE-431 22 Mölndal, Sweden)

Abstract

Chemical recycling of textiles holds the potential to yield materials of equal quality and value as products from virgin feedstock. Selective depolymerization of textile polyester (PET) from regenerated cellulose/PET blends, by means of alkaline hydrolysis, renders the monomers of PET while cellulose remains in fiber form. Here, we present the mechanism and reactivity of textile PET during alkaline hydrolysis. Part I of this article series focuses on the cellulose part and a possible industrialization of such a process. The kinetics and reaction mechanism for alkaline hydrolysis of polyester packaging materials or virgin bulk polyester are well described in the scientific literature; however, information on depolymerization of PET from textiles is sparse. We find that the reaction rate of hydrolysis is not affected by disintegrating the fabric to increase its surface area. We ascribe this to the yarn structure, where texturing and a low density assures a high accessibility even without disintegration. The reaction, similar to bulk polyester, is shown to be surface specific and proceeds via endwise peeling. Finally, we show that the reaction product terephthalic acid is pure and obtained in high yields.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny Bengtsson & Anna Peterson & Alexander Idström & Hanna de la Motte & Kerstin Jedvert, 2022. "Chemical Recycling of a Textile Blend from Polyester and Viscose, Part II: Mechanism and Reactivity during Alkaline Hydrolysis of Textile Polyester," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-10, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6911-:d:832380
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6911/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6911/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6911-:d:832380. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.