PMID- 34901633
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20211215
IS  - 2470-1343 (Electronic)
IS  - 2470-1343 (Linking)
VI  - 6
IP  - 48
DP  - 2021 Dec 7
TI  - Study of the Viscosity and Thermal Characteristics of Polyolefins/Solvent 
      Mixtures: Applications for Plastic Pyrolysis.
PG  - 32832-32840
LID - 10.1021/acsomega.1c04809 [doi]
AB  - Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental problems that the world is 
      currently facing. Pyrolysis is a frontier technique aimed at converting plastic 
      waste back into virgin-quality resin. However, the transfer of the waste plastic 
      feed into the pyrolysis reactor must be optimized before the process can be 
      upscaled to a continuous process. In this study, a new solvent that reduces the 
      viscosity of molten plastic was introduced and characterized. The results 
      revealed that the polymers are soluble in the ratio of up to 75 wt % plastic and 
      25 wt % solvent at 240  degrees C. The viscosity of pure low-density polyethylene (LDPE), 
      high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP) in the solvent was 
      measured in different weight percentages of polymer in solvent (30-80 wt %) and 
      at 160, 180, 200, 220, 240, and 260  degrees C. The viscosity decreased with the 
      decreasing polymer-weight percentage and with increasing temperature. The 
      viscosity of LDPE/solvent and PP(s)(isotactic)/solvent is much lower than for 
      HDPE/solvent and PP(p)(polypropylene impact copolymer)/solvent. Differential 
      scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were applied to 
      characterize the thermal behavior of LDPE, HDPE, and PP in the solvent in three 
      different weight percentages (25, 50, and 75 wt %). The DSC results indicate that 
      in the mixture of PP(s)/solvent and LDPE/solvent the melting point of PP and LDPE 
      decreases as the amount of solvent increases. Overall, these results indicate 
      that the selected solvent is an effective agent to prepare waste plastics for 
      pyrolysis.
CI  - (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
FAU - Zolghadr, Ali
AU  - Zolghadr A
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-5799-2691
AD  - Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, 1400 
      Townsend Drive, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States.
FAU - Foroozandehfar, Azarnoosh
AU  - Foroozandehfar A
AD  - Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, 1400 
      Townsend Drive, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States.
FAU - Kulas, Daniel G
AU  - Kulas DG
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-3165-3816
AD  - Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, 1400 
      Townsend Drive, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States.
FAU - Shonnard, David
AU  - Shonnard D
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-5719-254X
AD  - Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, 1400 
      Townsend Drive, Houghton, Michigan 49931, United States.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20211119
PL  - United States
TA  - ACS Omega
JT  - ACS omega
JID - 101691658
PMC - PMC8655911
COIS- The authors declare no competing financial interest.
EDAT- 2021/12/14 06:00
MHDA- 2021/12/14 06:01
PMCR- 2021/11/19
CRDT- 2021/12/13 18:14
PHST- 2021/09/01 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/11/10 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/12/13 18:14 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/12/14 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/12/14 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2021/11/19 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1021/acsomega.1c04809 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - ACS Omega. 2021 Nov 19;6(48):32832-32840. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c04809. 
      eCollection 2021 Dec 7.