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Recycling of plastics waste

Supercritical water or alcohols will be used as reaction medium for plastics recycling focusing on common plastics extensively used in our daily lives. The transition of waste polymers to basic monomers can be carried out in a flow reactor. Condensation polymerisation plastics such as PET, Nylon 6, PC and PU will be depolymerised into their monomers i.e. PET to terephthalate and ethylene glycol; Nylon 6 to ε-aminocaproic acid and ε-caprolactam; PC to bisphenol A and phenol; PU to polyol and diamine. Additional polymerisation polymers such as PE will be depolymerised into shorter chain hydrocarbons.