Chemical recycling of plastic dry fines
A method of recycling plastic waste by feeding a quantity of PET-containing dry fines from the plastic waste to a chemical recycling facility; and depolymerizing in the chemical recycling facility at least a portion of the PET-containing dry fines; wherein the chemical recycling facility comprises a solvolysis facility for depolymerization and the solvolysis facility is a methanolysis facility, and wherein the dry fines are recovered from a solid-liquid separator and/or dust collector in a PET reclaimer facility and/or a manufacturer of PET articles, in which dust is generated from conveying, drying, densification, centrifugation processes, and/or grinding PET-containing plastic material.
1 . A method of recycling a plastic waste comprising:
(a) feeding a quantity of PET-containing dry fines from said plastic waste to a chemical recycling facility; and
(b) depolymerizing in said chemical recycling facility at least a portion of said PET-containing dry fines; wherein said chemical recycling facility comprises a solvolysis facility for depolymerization and the solvolysis facility is a methanolysis facility, and
wherein said dry fines are recovered from a solid-liquid separator and/or dust collector in a PET reclaimer facility and/or a manufacturer of PET articles, in which dust is generated from conveying, drying, densification, centrifugation processes, and/or grinding PET-containing plastic material.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said quantity of PET-containing dry fines comprises at least 90 weight percent PET on a dry basis.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said quantity of PET-containing dry fines comprises at least 0.1 weight percent co-polyesters on a dry basis.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said quantity of PET-containing dry fines comprises not more than 50 weight percent polyolefins on a dry basis.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said quantity of PET-containing dry fines comprises not more than 20 weight percent PVC on a dry basis.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said dry fines comprise dust formed during a PET reclaimer densification, extrusion, and/or packaging process.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said dry fines are fed directly to said chemical recycling facility by a conveyance system interconnecting said chemical recycling facility to a PET reclaimer facility.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising densifying said dry fines within said chemical recycling facility to form densified plastic particles having a D90 particle size of 0.32 cm (⅛ inches) to 2.54 cm (1 inch) before said depolymerizing (b).
9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising feeding said densified plastic particles into a solvolysis facility within said chemical recycling facility.
10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising feeding said dry fines through a screener and separating at least a portion of said dry fines having a D90 of less than 1,000 μm.
11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising densifying said portion of dry fines having a D90 of less than 1,000 μm to form densified plastic particles have a D90 particle size of 0.32 cm (⅛ inches) to 2.54 cm (1 inch).