Other Plastic and Rubber Partial Oxidation Processes

5 Other Plastic and Rubber Partial Oxidation Processes 

In spite of the above mentioned background on polymer oxidation, only a few works have been published on the subject of obtaining commercially valuable products by partial oxidation of plastic and rubber wastes. Several of these works are described below. 

A more complex degradation takes place when this process is applied to PVC. The authors propose that PVC depolymerization under supercritical water conditions proceeds in accordance with a mechanism consisting of four different pathways (i) dehydrochlorination and partial oxidation, (ii) dehydrochlorination and chain scission, (iii) dehydrochlorination and total oxidation, and (iv) hydrochlorination. In the reaction products, high yields of vinyl chloride, 1,1-dichloroethane and 1,2-dichloroethane are detected, especially at short reaction times, whereas longer times favour total oxidation products. 

Other products found include chloromethane, chloroethane and 1,2-dichloro-propane. 

Other possible oxidative treatments for the feedstock recycling of plastic and rubber wastes include partial oxidation with organic peroxides and decomposition by reaction with oxygen by thermooxidation or under supercritical water conditions. However, these latter alternatives have so far not been widely investigated. 

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