Valorization of waste biodegradable polyester for methyl methacrylate production

Bo Sun, Jie Zhang, Maolin Wang, Shixiang Yu, Yao Xu, Shuheng Tian, Zirui Gao, Dequan Xiao, Guosheng Liu, Wu Zhou, Meng Wang () and Ding Ma ()
Additional contact information
Bo Sun: Peking University
Jie Zhang: Peking University
Maolin Wang: Peking University
Shixiang Yu: Peking University
Yao Xu: Peking University
Shuheng Tian: Peking University
Zirui Gao: Peking University
Dequan Xiao: University of New Haven
Guosheng Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wu Zhou: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Meng Wang: Peking University
Ding Ma: Peking University

Nature Sustainability, 2023, vol. 6, issue 6, 712-719

Abstract: Abstract Biodegradable polyesters such as polylactic acid are promising alternatives to conventional plastics as they do not accumulate in the environment upon disposal. However, their biodegradation leads to CO2 emissions. Alternatively, waste biodegradable polyesters could serve as a carbon source for the production of value-added chemicals. Valorization of waste biodegradable polyesters not only avoids CO2 emissions during their biodegradation but also achieves sustainable carbon use. Here, we report a two-step catalytic process to convert polylactic acid waste into methyl methacrylate, a key building-block molecule. Polylactic acid is first transformed into methyl propionate with near-quantitative yields (conversion >99%, selectivity 98%) over the α-MoC catalyst in methanol solution, which is followed by reacting the obtained methyl propionate with formaldehyde to produce methyl methacrylate with a conversion of 81% and selectivity of 90%. This study opens up a new path for managing end-of-life biodegradable polyester plastics and contributing to a circular economy.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01082-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natsus:v:6:y:2023:i:6:d:10.1038_s41893-023-01082-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01082-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Sustainability is currently edited by Monica Contestabile

More articles in Nature Sustainability from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().