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Demonstration of a chemical recycling concept for polybutylene succinate containing waste substrates via coupled enzymatic/electrochemical processes
Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.14885
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2025-01-31
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Buchinger, Richard
Grassi, Vanessa
Antony, Jasmin
Gahlawat, Soniya
TORE-DOI
Journal
Citation
ChemSusChem (in Press): (2025)
Publisher DOI
Scopus ID
Publisher
Wiley
Chemical recycling of polymer waste is a promising strategy to reduce the dependency of chemical industry on fossil resources and reduce the increasing quantities of plastic waste. A common challenge in chemical recycling processes is the costly downstream separation of reaction products. For polybutylene succinate (PBS) no effective recycling concept has been implemented so far. In this work we demonstrate a promising recycling concept for PBS, avoiding costly purification steps. We developed a sequential process, coupling enzymatic hydrolysis of PBS with an electrochemical reaction step. The enzymatic step efficiently hydrolyses PBS in its monomers, succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol. The electrochemical step converts succinic acid into ethene as final product. Ethene is easily separated from the reaction solution as gaseous product, together with hydrogen as secondary product, while 1,4-butanediol remains in the aqueous solution. Both reaction steps operate in aqueous solvent and benign reaction conditions. Furthermore, the influence of electrolyte components on the electrochemical step was unraveled by applying molecular dynamic simulations. The final coupled process achieves a total ethene productivity of 91 μmol/cm2 over a duration of 8 hours, with 1110 μmol/cm2 hydrogen and 77 % regained 1,4-butanediol as valuable secondary products.
Subjects
Electrocatalytic succinic acid decarboxylation | Enzymatic hydrolysis | Ethene production | Plastic waste recycling
DDC Class
620.1: Engineering Mechanics and Materials Science
660: Chemistry; Chemical Engineering
540: Chemistry
628: Sanitary; Municipal
Publication version
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Name
ChemSusChem - 2025 - Buchinger - Demonstration of a Chemical Recycling Concept for Polybutylene Succinate Containing Waste.pdf
Type
Main Article
Size
3.85 MB
Format
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