Converting waste PET plastics into automobile fuel and antifreeze components

Abstract With the aim to solve the serious problem of white plastic pollution, we report herein a H 2 -free low-cost Cu/SiO 2 catalyzed process to convert polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into p -xylene (PX) and ethylene glycol (EG) in one pot with methanol as both the solvent and hydrogen source at 210 °C. Kinetic and in-situ Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) studies demonstrated that the degradation of PET into dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) in methanol involved methanol dehydrogenation and ester hydrodeoxygenation reactions. When preparing the copper silicate precursor using the hydrothermal method with ammonia, NaCl was introduced to interact with the surface hydroxyl groups of SiO 2 , thereby forming a dense, granular copper silicate with a high Cu + /Cu 0 ratio, which improved the methanol dehydrogenation and DMT hydrodeoxygenation activities. This novel H 2 -free process uses a low-cost Cu-based catalyst, allowing us to produce gasoline and antifreeze components from waste PET plastic in one pot, which provides a feasible solution to the plastic pollution problem in islands.