Low-Cost, High-Value Aromatics From Upcycling of Polyolefins Through Microwave Catalytic Processing

In this project, a simple one-step microwave catalytic process is proposed for upcycling single-use plastics into high-value BTX (benzene, toluene, xylene). This project will deliver optimized catalyst and processes to allow lower operating temperatures and higher BTX yield, the goal is to further increase the BTX yield up to 80% and reduce the reaction temperature from 300 ◦C to 200 ◦C and develop designs for quartz fluidized reactor and H-field microwave cavity for continuous large-scale single-use plastics microwave upcycling treatment. The TPMs of this project are estimated at 2MMT of secondary materials use, 73PJ of energy savings and 1.923MMT of CO2 reduction. Assumptions based on utilization of 10% of 20MMT of polyolefins that are recoverable.