Deconstruction of high-density polyethylene into liquid hydrocarbon fuels and lubricants by hydrogenolysis over Ru catalyst

Polyethylene (PE) is the most popular plastic globally, and the widespread use of plastics has created severe environmental issues. High energy consumption in the current process makes its recycling a challenging problem. In our report, the depolymerization of high-density PE was conducted in various liquid-phase solvents with the Ru/C catalyst under relatively mild conditions. The maximum yields of the jet-fuel- and lubricant-range hydrocarbons were 60.8 and 31.6 wt %, respectively. After optimization of the reaction conditions (220 C-o and 60 bar of H-2), the total yield of liquid hydrocarbon products reached approximately 90 wt% within only 1 h. The product distribution could be tuned by the H2 partial pressure, the active- metal particle size, and the solvents. The solvation of PE in the different solvents determined the depolymerization reaction kinetics, which was confirmed by the molecular dynamics simulation results.

Automated summary

The report successfully achieved the depolymerization of high-density polyethylene using a Ru/C catalyst under relatively mild conditions, with maximum yields of 60.8% and 31.6% for jet-fuel and lubricant-range hydrocarbons respectively. After optimizing the reaction conditions, the total yield reached approximately 90% within only 1 hour. The solvation of PE in different solvents was found to determine the depolymerization reaction kinetics.