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Nonstationary model of the semicontinuous depolymerization of polycarbonate
Author(s) -
PiñeroHernanz Raúl,
GarcíaSerna Juan,
Cocero María José
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.11025
Subject(s) - depolymerization , polycarbonate , isothermal process , kinetics , catalysis , chemistry , chemical engineering , mass transfer , solvent , chemical reaction engineering , thermodynamics , materials science , polymer chemistry , chromatography , organic chemistry , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
The experimental work for the depolymerization process of Bisphenol A polycarbonate pellets and CD/DVD wastes in a semicontinuous reactor and a novel nonstationary model to describe the process is presented. The different steps of the process to develop the model are analyzed thoroughly. The kinetics of the alkali‐catalyzed methanolysis of polycarbonate was determined. The reactor and kinetic models were validated by a series of 21 experiments performed in a laboratory semicontinuous tubular reactor at isothermal conditions from 90 to 180°C and pressures from 1.0 to 20.0 MPa in liquid phase, with and without NaOH concentrations of 1 × 10 −3 to 5 × 10 −3 kg/L, flow rates from 2.3 × 10 −3 to 10.2 × 10 −3 L/min, and CO 2 molar fractions from zero to 0.374. The effects of temperature, pressure, catalyst amount, mass transfer (solvent flow rate), and CO 2 addition in kinetics were investigated. © 2006 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2006