Progressive Study of Glycolysis of PET

Chemical recycling of Poly Ethylene Terephthalate to the high value-added products attracted considerable attention and numerous researches in recent years. The flakes of recycled PET, especially bottle grade were used, and the process of glycolysis in the presence of ethylene glycol and zinc acetate as a catalyst has been studied. The glycolysis reaction products, consists mainly favorable amount of bis(2- hydroxyethyl terephthalate, some oligomers, and excess free glycol. Characterization and purity of products have been confirmed using FTIR, and DSC techniques and conversion or degradation rate of PET determined using gravimetric method. The results showed a reasonable degradation yield in time of 6-8 hr and at temperature range of 170 to 190 °C. The weighting sample method results are directly used to determine the glycolysis reaction kinetic parameters for scale –up purposes