Conversion of Compositionally Diverse Plastic Waste over Earth-Abundant Sulfides

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Abstract
Chemical deconstruction of polyolefin plastic wastes via hydroconversion is promising for mitigating plastic accumulation in landfills and the environment. However, hydroconversion catalysts cannot handle complex feedstocks containing multiple polymers, additives, and heteroatom impurities. Here, we report a single-step strategy using earth-abundant metal sulfide catalysts to deconstruct these wastes. We show that NiMoSx/HY catalysts deconstruct polyolefin feedstocks, achieving ∼81-94% selectivity to liquid products. Postsynthetic zeolite modification enhances the catalyst's activity by >2.5 times, achieving over 95% selectivity to liquid fuels with controllable product distribution in the naphtha, jet fuel, and diesel range. The catalyst is resilient to increasingly complex feedstocks, such as additive-containing polymers and mixed plastics composed of polyolefins and heteroatom-containing polymers, including poly(vinyl chloride). We extend the strategy to single-use polyolefin wastes that can generate toxic byproducts, such as HCl and NH3, and eliminate their emissions by integrating reaction and sorption in a one-step process.
Funding Information
  • Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0021166)
  • Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (PS 23A00753)

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