Lisa de Waart
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are convenient to use but contribute to plastic pollution, causing a worldwide environmental problem. The separation of colorants and additives is a major challenge in the PET recycling process. In this research, I will focus on the separation of inorganic colorants, organic colorants, and additives from PET, thereby aiming for high efficiency, sustainability, and feasibility. Dissolution-precipitation is the most promising method, but requires higher recovery yields, cheaper and more renewable solvents. Thus, a systematic search for more sustainable solvent/anti-solvent combinations will be performed. In addition, the quantity and quality of the recovered colorants and additives will be determined using analytical methods such as Raman spectroscopy and UV-Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy.