Deriving Styrene for Food-Grade PS-Production from Recycled PS
Polystyrene is a widely used polymer for packaging and technical applications. Our state-of-the-art separation technology allows the recovery of high-purity Styrene from recycled PS, even from highly contaminated feedstocks.
Your processes
Chemical Polystyrene Recycling
Our offering
Styrene purities of up to 99.95% suitable for food-grade PS production
Removal of close boiling components such as o-xylene, phenyl acetylene, cumene etc to low levels meeting all ASTM specs
Removal of color, oxygenates, sulfur species, halogenated and nitrogenated species
With an annual production of more than 15 million tones, Polystyrene is one of the most commonly used polymers. While its main application is in the field of packaging e.g. for take-away food or yogurt cups, it is also widely used for electronic products or as insulation material in the construction industry. Despite its outstanding properties, the majority of PS is currently not recycled. Novel chemical recycling processes however allow the depolymerization of the polymer to its building block, styrene, which can then be used to produce new polystyrene. There are two important design considerations to be considered:
Quality of waste PS scrap can produce impurities in crude styrene oil which cannot be removed by conventional distillation.
Depolymerization can process impurities like o-xylene and phenyl acetylyene which can render conventional distillation ineffective.
We offer a licensed hybrid process consisting of a quenching unit, a conventional/advanced distillation section followed by a proprietary unit, designed to separate close-boiling impurities. The overall setup offers energy efficiency over conventional distillation and can remove impurities which conventional distillation cannot. Further, an ultra-high purity styrene grade (> 99.95%) can be recovered, exceeding all ASTM specifications. The approach offers peace of mind to the operator with regards to waste PS quality variance or depolymerization produced impurities since on-spec styrene quality is always ensured.
For more information, please contact our experts below.
