Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICTDevelopment of a kinetic model for solvent-assisted depolymerisation of polycondensation polymers
- Master thesis
- Internship
- Assistant
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Background
Polycondensation polymers are used in different walks of human life. However, post-consumer plastic waste resulting from their indiscriminate use and inappropriate disposal poses a great threat to our environment. Chemical recycling it to obtain constituent monomers and/or other valuable chemicals renders these waste streams as a valuable feedstock for the chemical industry and paves way towards a resource-efficient future. Our group develops sustainable chemical recycling strategies for different poly-condensed fractions commonly present in conventional waste streams. These strategies involve the use of auxiliary solvents to aid polymer dissolution and nucleophilic process reagents for subsequent depolymerisation. These processes, thus, involves an interesting inter-play between mass-transfer and reaction, which has to be investigated and further modelled within the framework of this thesis.
Aims
The ultimate goal is to develop a holistic yet simple kinetic model for solvent-assisted depolymerisation of different polycondensation polymers.
Tasks
- Comprehensive literature research on the current state-of-the-art technologies for kinetic analysis in efforts directed towards chemical recycling (solvolysis)
- Determining the reaction kinetics for solvolysis of at least one poly-condensed polymer and its subsequent kinetic modelling
- Analysing the sensitivity of the model to different degrees of freedom
- Contributing to a publication to disseminate the scientific findings
Requirements
- Degree in Chemistry or Chemical and/or Process Engineering
- Interest in subjects like Chemical Reaction Engineering, Process Modelling and Optimization, Circular Economy and Sustainability (Green Chemistry)
- Practical laboratory experience
- Proficiency in modelling tools like MATLAB®
- Motivation to establish this topic further at Fraunhofer ICT
- Dissemination of the results through appropriate publications and/or at relevant conferences