Neutral Hydrolysis of Post-Consumer Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste in Different Phases

Post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was hydrolyzed in pure water over a wide range of temperatures (190-400 °C) and pressures (1-35 MPa) to produce terephthalic acid (TPA). Solid or molten PET was subjected to water as a saturated vapor, superheated vapor, saturated liquid, compressed liquid, and supercritical fluid. The highest TPA yields were observed for the hydrolysis of molten PET in saturated liquid water. Isothermal and non-isothermal hydrolysis of PET was also explored. Rapidly heating the reactor contents at about 5-10 °C/s (“fast” hydrolysis) led to high TPA yields, as did isothermal PET hydrolysis, but within 1 min instead of 30 min. Notably, these conditions resulted in the lowest environmental energy impact metric observed to date for uncatalyzed hydrolysis.