Depolymerization of polyolefins for biological conversion
AssigneeNational Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC
InventorsMichael S. Kent, Daniella Victoria Martinez, Amit Kumar Jha, Jose Alberto Rodriguez Ruiz, Oleg Davydovich
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Abstract
A method for depolymerizing polyolefins. The method includes a sulfonation step including contacting a polyolefin with a sulfonating agent in the absence of an organic solvent to provide a sulfonated polyolefin and a bond cleavage step including contacting a metal catalyst and an oxidant with the sulfonated polyolefin. A carbon-carbon bond of the sulfonated polyolefin is cleaved to provide a bioavailable carbon product wherein the bioavailable carbon product is a carbon source for microbial growth.
Claims16
A method for depolymerizing polyolefins, the method comprising:
- a sulfonation step comprising contacting a polyolefin with a sulfonating agent in the absence of an organic solvent to provide a sulfonated polyolefin and a reaction mixture;
- a bond cleavage step comprising contacting a metal catalyst and an oxidant with the sulfonated polyolefin, wherein a carbon-carbon bond of the sulfonated polyolefin is cleaved to provide a bioavailable carbon product;
- wherein the bioavailable carbon product is a carbon source for microbial growth;
- the metal catalyst is added to an aqueous dispersion of the sulfonated polyolefin to provide a metal-loaded sulfonated polyolefin,
- the metal-loaded sulfonated polyolefin is isolated by filtration, rinsed with water to remove excess metal catalyst.
A method for depolymerizing polyolefins, the method comprising:
- a sulfonation step comprising contacting a polyolefin with a sulfonating agent in the absence of an organic solvent to provide a sulfonated polyolefin and a reaction mixture;
- a bond cleavage step comprising contacting a metal catalyst and an oxidant with the sulfonated polyolefin, wherein a carbon-carbon bond of the sulfonated polyolefin is cleaved to provide a bioavailable carbon product;
- wherein the bioavailable carbon product is a carbon source for microbial growth;
- wherein an M/S molar ratio is 0.02 to 0.3, wherein M is a molar amount of metal present in the metal catalyst and S is a molar amount of sulfur present in the sulfonated polyolefin, an oxidant to monomer molar ratio is 1.4 to 2.6, wherein the oxidant is moles of oxidant in the oxidation step and the monomer is moles of monomer in the polyolefin, and a yield of bioavailable carbon is 20% to 60% of the carbon in the polyolefin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.