Recuperação do ácido tereftálico a partir do PET pós-consumo via hidrólise básica

Abstract

Polymers are present in the products we use in our daily lives, one of the most used being Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). In Brazil its use became stronger in 1993, it continued to grow and its use became much wider. With the increase in its application and increase in its discarded volume, the need arose to carry out its recycling and today, Brazil has one of the highest recycling rates and a wide variety of applications for post-consumer recycled PET. Even so, the lack of tax incentives acts as a limiting factor for the industry in Brazil. Recycling considerably benefits the environment as it reduces the demand for natural resources and the amount of plastic in landfills. Within this context, the economic movement that PET recycling provides, generating profits for the country, together with the awareness of the environmental consequences caused by the inappropriate disposal of this polymer, encourages the development of new technologies that provide a reduction in the impact caused by PET post consumption and market warming. The present work presents an alternative to the conventional method of mechanical recycling of this material, employing chemical recycling via basic hydrolysis. The reaction occurred under stirring and heating, with a temperature of 80ºC, controlled by the temperature of the thermal bath, in a system coupled to a ball condenser for 10 hours, with 10.82M NaOH. The characterization of the product obtained at the end of the process was based on solubility in water, ethyl alcohol, ether and dimethylsulfoxide. The result obtained at the end of the process showed solubility compatible with results found in the literature. The solubility test pointed to the A2 group, described as weak organic acid, a characteristic also compatible with the literature. Thus, the results obtained in this work were satisfactory, pointing to promising interests for future studies.