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Valorization of waste biodegradable polyester for methyl methacrylate production

Nature Sustainability volume 6, pages 712–719 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Biodegradable polyesters such as polylactic acid are promising alternatives to conventional plastics as they do not accumulate in the environment upon disposal. However, their biodegradation leads to CO2 emissions. Alternatively, waste biodegradable polyesters could serve as a carbon source for the production of value-added chemicals. Valorization of waste biodegradable polyesters not only avoids CO2 emissions during their biodegradation but also achieves sustainable carbon use. Here, we report a two-step catalytic process to convert polylactic acid waste into methyl methacrylate, a key building-block molecule. Polylactic acid is first transformed into methyl propionate with near-quantitative yields (conversion >99%, selectivity 98%) over the α-MoC catalyst in methanol solution, which is followed by reacting the obtained methyl propionate with formaldehyde to produce methyl methacrylate with a conversion of 81% and selectivity of 90%. This study opens up a new path for managing end-of-life biodegradable polyester plastics and contributing to a circular economy.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2: Selective HDO of PLA on α-MoC.
Fig. 3: Catalytic transformation of polyesters into alkyl esters.
Fig. 4: The MMA production from waste PLA plastics.

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Acknowledgements

This work received financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (22072002, 21725301, 22232001, 21932002, 21821004), the National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFA1501102) and China Post-doctoral Science Foundation (2021M690004, 2021T140005). We thank B. Xu for discussion. W.Z. acknowledges support from the Beijing Outstanding Young Scientist Program (BJJWZYJH01201914430039). D.M. acknowledges support from the Tencent Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE. The XAFS was conducted at Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Bo Sun, Jie Zhang, Maolin Wang, Shixiang Yu, Yao Xu, Shuheng Tian, Zirui Gao, Meng Wang & Ding Ma

  2. Center for Integrative Materials Discovery, Department of Chemistry and Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of New Haven, West Haven, CT, USA

    Dequan Xiao

  3. State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Center for Excellence in Molecular Synthesis, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Guosheng Liu

  4. School of Physical Sciences and CAS Key Laboratory of Vacuum Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Wu Zhou

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  1. Bo Sun
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Contributions

D.M. and Meng Wang conceived the project. B.S., J.Z. and Maolin Wang performed most of the reactions. Maolin Wang, Y.X. and S.T. performed the X-ray-related characterizations (XAS, XPS) and analysis. S.Y., Z.G. and W.Z. performed the electron microscopy study. B.S., Meng Wang, D.X., G.L. and D.M. wrote the paper. All authors contributed to the discussion and revision of the paper.

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Correspondence to Meng Wang or Ding Ma.

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Nature Sustainability thanks Jinwen Zhang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Sun, B., Zhang, J., Wang, M. et al. Valorization of waste biodegradable polyester for methyl methacrylate production. Nat Sustain 6, 712–719 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01082-z

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