Process Analysis and Environmental Impact Study of Dissolution-Based Recycling Process of Plastics

TRINSEO, a leader in the sustainable plastic industry has great interest in creating a truly circular economy by focusing on the sustainable development goals. Developing and bringing dissolution-based recycling technology to its full potential is a priority project at TRINSEO, as it fits within company’s corporate sustainability commitments. Therefore, environmental impact analysis of dissolution-based recycling, especially for two strategic polymers for TRINSEO, Polycarbonate (PC) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), is considered to be critical.

The study highlights dissolution-based recycling as a potential technology to address an industry-wide challenge, reducing environmental impact of plastics, by allowing use of commingled waste streams for polymer recycling. It is reported here that dissolution-based recycling process which consists selective dissolution, purification and recovery of target polymers from mixed waste feedstocks has almost 80% lower energy consumption compared to production of the same polymers from fossil-based virgin raw materials. This statement holds for both polymers in concern, polycarbonate and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. Additionally, selection of energy efficient unit operations has also been explored for further reduction potential in energy requirement of the process.