Upcycling of Polystyrene Waste Plastics to High Value Carbon by Thermal Decomposition

Mensah, Kenneth; Mahmoud, Hatem; Fujii, Manabu; Shokry, Hassan

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.897.103

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In fact, PS occupies approximately one-third of landfills worldwide, 6 and leaked PS waste in the environment 7,8 causes adverse health effects both to humans 9−12 and wildlife. 13−15 Several groups have recently reported methods to convert PS to fine chemicals, such as graphene 16 and styrene. 17 In the past year, multiple groups have independently reported the conversion of PS to benzoic acid (BA).…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several groups have recently reported methods to convert PS to fine chemicals, such as graphene and styrene . In the past year, multiple groups have independently reported the conversion of PS to benzoic acid (BA). ,− In addition to chemical upcycling approaches, biological solutions to plastic degradation have also been of increasing interest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Polystyrene Upcycling into Fungal Natural Products and a Biocontrol Agent

et al. 2023

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Polystyrene (PS) is one of the most used yet infrequently recycled plastics. Although manufactured on the scale of 300 million tons per year globally, current approaches toward PS degradation are energy- and carbon-inefficient, slow, and/or limited in the value that they reclaim. We recently reported a scalable process to degrade post-consumer polyethylene-containing waste streams into carboxylic diacids. Engineered fungal strains then upgrade these diacids biosynthetically to synthesize pharmacologically active secondary metabolites. Herein, we apply a similar reaction to rapidly convert PS to benzoic acid in high yield. Engineered strains of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans then biosynthetically upgrade PS-derived crude benzoic acid to the structurally diverse secondary metabolites ergothioneine, pleuromutilin, and mutilin. Further, we expand the catalog of plastic-derived products to include spores of the industrially relevant biocontrol agent Aspergillus flavus Af36 from crude PS-derived benzoic acid.

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Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polystyrene Upcycling into Fungal Natural Products and a Biocontrol Agent

et al. 2023

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“…24 In one of the studies, high-purity graphene was produced from PS waste by thermal decomposition of C H and C C bonds at elevated temperatures in an autoclave. 25 Moreover, Yalcinkaya et al focused on the formation of 2D graphene sheets and 3D graphene spheres from waste PS and PET by upcycling process on talc and OMMT substrates by tailoring the substrate size. 26 Beyond long carbonization or pyrolysis duration, various techniques such as flash pyrolysis (FP) was conducted to obtain graphene-like structures from carbon-rich waste sources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, few‐layer graphene sheets were generated utilizing expanded polystyrene (e.g., styrofoam) waste by in situ loading of small‐sized iron chloride catalyst followed by pyrolysis process at different temperatures (600, 700, 800, and 900°C) 24 . In one of the studies, high‐purity graphene was produced from PS waste by thermal decomposition of CH and CC bonds at elevated temperatures in an autoclave 25 . Moreover, Yalcinkaya et al focused on the formation of 2D graphene sheets and 3D graphene spheres from waste PS and PET by upcycling process on talc and OMMT substrates by tailoring the substrate size 26 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selective thermal recycling for graphene growth on natural substrates: A comparative study on life cycle assessment, energy consumption, and mechanical performance in recompounding

Baskan‐Bayrak,

Kocanali,

Saner Okan

2023

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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Manufacturing of carbon‐based materials from waste thermoplastics is a keystone to reduce adverse environmental impacts. There are numerous attempts for sustainable graphene manufacturing from various waste sources by thermal treatment but there is no clear distinction on the effective conversion process by addressing reliable CO2 footprints. This study provides a comprehensive benchmarking study on the conversion of waste polypropylene plastics coming from yogurt containers into graphene on the substrate of talc by applying two upcycling techniques of catalytic carbonization (CC) and flash pyrolysis (FP) by comparing energy and speed of the processes and a dimensional stability and physical characteristics of the produced graphene substances by adopting a comparative life cycle assessment. FP led to the sphericalization of graphenes due to fast dehydration, cross‐linking, and carbonization of aromatic structures. On the other hand, gradual heating in CC caused the formation of tubular‐like graphene structures. In addition, FP became advantageous by resulting in 52% of CO2 emission compared with CC process. On the other hand, graphenes separated from talcs exhibited a remarkable 70% reduction in global warming potential compared with conventional graphene production from graphite. In order to complete the value chain and circularity, the mechanical performance of two different hybrid additives produced by selective thermal recycling in recompounding with copolymer polypropylene was examined, and additives from CC enhanced the flexural and tensile properties two times better than the one from FP. With this study, it becomes possible to compare analysis of graphene growth on natural substrates by exploring life cycle assessment, energy consumption, and mechanical performance with selective thermal recycling and recompounding.

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“…Although agro-biomass is biodegradable in the natural environment, the biomass contains vital compounds or elements that have many uses [6]. For instance, carbon found in biomass can serve as a precursor for producing fuels, gas, adsorbents, and several others [5,[7][8][9][10]. Hence, waste biomasses are valuable materials, and the valorization of such waste is sustainable, economical, and generally eco-friendly [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of eggshell/N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) mixing ratios on the sonochemical production of CaCO3 nanoparticles

Mensah

Abdelmageed²,

Shokry

2022

J. Eng. Appl. Sci.

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Bio-CaCO3 nanoparticles have several applications and have attracted significant attention in current research. N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) has been proven to be an effective non-volatile solvent for synthesizing bio-CaCO3 nanomaterials from eggshell. However, the optimum ratio of eggshell and DMF need to be specified to achieve maximum nano-CaCO3 production for large-scale purposes. Thus, this work investigated the effect of eggshell/DMF mixing ratios on the production of CaCO3 nanoparticles from the chicken eggshell. The nano-CaCO3 were synthesized via dry milling and then sonication at a frequency of 40 kHz for 6 h in the presence of DMF. The eggshell mass was varied from 0.5 to 20 g per 100 mL of DMF. The synthesized CaCO3 materials were characterized using SEM, TEM, EDX, XRD, and BET surface analysis. The eggshell/DMF ratio was optimized to maximize the production of CaCO3 nanoparticles, and its effect on the size, crystallinity, surface area, and porosity of the CaCO3 particles were discussed. Increasing eggshell/DMF ratio decreased the sonication efficiency with increasing crystallite and particle size. The specific surface area of the synthesized CaCO3 particles decreased with increasing eggshell/DMF ratio. 1 g/100 mL was the optimum or highest ratio to obtain 100% nano-CaCO3. At 1 g/100mL ratio, the bio-CaCO3 contained a crystallite size of 23.08 nm, particle size between 5 and 30 nm and surface area of 47.44 m2 g−1.

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Upcycling of Polystyrene Waste Plastics to High Value Carbon by Thermal Decomposition

Cited by 19 publications

References 17 publications

Polystyrene Upcycling into Fungal Natural Products and a Biocontrol Agent

Polystyrene Upcycling into Fungal Natural Products and a Biocontrol Agent

Selective thermal recycling for graphene growth on natural substrates: A comparative study on life cycle assessment, energy consumption, and mechanical performance in recompounding

Effect of eggshell/N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) mixing ratios on the sonochemical production of CaCO3 nanoparticles

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