A Technoeconomic Analysis of Biodegradable Polymers Production From CO2 and Waste Plastics

This paper evaluates the economic viability of manufacturing biodegradable polymers (mostly polycarbonates) from CO₂ and waste plastics. Waste plastics recycling are beneficial to environment and economy as well. Thermal processes have been used for feedstock recycling from waste plastics, such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene.  Olefins are very useful feedstock in industry; however, it’s expensive to produce olefins by using conventional hydrocarbons cracking technology. In our simulation, olefins are generated from pyrolysis of waste plastics with thermal energy supplied from a solar concentrator, thus no net CO₂ is produced in the pyrolysis. Biodegradable polymers are then produced from the polymerization of CO₂ and olefins directly in a catalytic reactor. This method provides an alternative method for CO₂ sequestration and utilization. A detailed economic analysis using VMGSim software is presented.