Synthesis of PET oligomers from biorecycled terephthalic acid
Carbios, a company in the field of bioplasturgy, announces that it has taken a new step forward with the production of PET oligomers made out of terephthalic acid coming from its biorecycling process of PET plastic bottles.
The synthesis of PET is carried out in two major steps:
1) The first, considered to be the most critical, consists in the synthesis of PET oligomers from monomers of terephthalic acid and mono ethylene glycol.
2) The second allows the synthesis of PET by polycondensation of the oligomers previously obtained.
By succeeding in this first step, Carbios demonstrates that it is possible to use PET plastic waste rather than fossil resources for the synthesis of PET oligomers.
Carbios previously successfully depolymerised PET bottles into its initial monomers. A first scale up of the process has since been performed. After a proof of concept at the scale of one hundred milliliters, this depolymerisation was carried out in reactors of 5 and 100 liters. At such last scale, 20 kilos of PET have been treated and depolymerised at 90%. Performances of the depolymerisation process were perfectly identical regardless of the reactors volume, showing by then the strength of this technology. At the end of the depolymerisation process, the terephthalic acid produced has been collected and purified. Its purity reaches a level above 99% and analytic technics of reference do not allow to make any difference with commercial terephthalic acid produced from oil.
