Polymer Digestion: VOLCAT

Dr. Bob Allen is a polymer scientist who works at National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He has spent
most of his career at IBM Almaden Research Center. In this presentation, he starts of by talking about the
research work done at IBM on Polymer materials. The research includes Lithography/Albany, QBIT
fabrication and COGNOZE. To enable to Next Gen computing, IBM invest heavily in polymer science
research. This research is associated with several challenges like complex separations, antimicrobial
polymers, PET recycling, Next Gen Battery, Catalysis. In this presentation, he mostly talks about PET
recycling. They have developed a molecular technology to recycle PET called as VOLCAT.

PET can be recycled mechanically or chemically. Each technology has its own pros and cons. In mechanical
recycling, only non-colored bottles are recycled (Colored bottles have to be sorted and forms a waste).
Then is processed at high temperature (>250 C) after thorough washing. However, quality of mechanically
recycled PET is much lower. In chemical recycling, PET is depolymerized to recover the monomer. This
monomer has to be purified and then it can be incorporated with virgin PET. The main challenge with
chemical recycling is that it is a highly expensive process. IBM focuses mainly on chemical recycling and is
trying to come up with a cheaper process.

In chemical depolymerization, Dr. Allen discusses depolymerization of PET using two approaches. One is
with an organocatalyst like Ethylene Glycol and other approach involves DBU. In the approach with
organocatalyst, yield is close to 80% and purity greater than 99% is achieved. However, the recovery of
organocatalyst is difficult making it a cost intensive process. In the process involving DBU, the yield is only
75%. Also, this process comes at a risk of contamination of catalyst. These challenges make recycling of
PET difficult. Hence, IBM has tried to come up with better catalysts and processes.

The answer to these difficult and cost intensive approaches is VOLCAT technology. The VOLCAT
technology uses a distillation column, depolymerization reactor coupled with catalyst recycle, filter,
decolorizer, metal remover and a crystallizer. This process can be carried out at comparatively lower
temperatures and enables complete recovery of catalyst and complete reuse of Ethylene Glycol. Due to
the use of decolorizer, it completely eliminates the need of color sorting. The key attribute of VOLCAT is
that it is a molecular sorter. The catalyst used is inexpensive and can be easily recovered. It can produce
high grade recycled PET.

The quality of PET produced by VOLCAT is very high. Dr. Allen presents a table in his presentation, which
compares the color and transparency of PET produced from a VOLCAT process and PET produced from
BHET polymerization. According to this data, no significant difference can be noted in the PET produced
by both the processes. However, more research needs to be done on Scalability and Economics of the
VOLCAT process at a commercial level. Further research could include research on other recyclable
polymers, better catalysts and cheaper processes. The new materials that are in line of research are PHT
thermosets and polycarbonate.