Hydrocracking Plastic Mixtures into Xylene

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Program:
Exploratory Topics
Award:
$1,469,452
Location:
Baltimore, Maryland
Status:
ACTIVE
Project Term:
02/23/2021 - 02/22/2024
Website:

Technology Description:

Johns Hopkins University aims to catalytically convert low-cost #3-7 plastic mixtures into para-xylene, one of the most valuable hydrocarbon products. Johns Hopkins' primary design of the hydrocracking process first converts hydrocarbon plastics selectively to volatile hydrocarbons with xylene isomers as the predominant products. Then a post-reaction separation unit derives pure para-xylene as the desired product. The unit allows recycling of the residual H2 and possibly other hydrocarbons back to the hydrocracker. The ultimate goal of this project is to enable energy-efficient and economically viable depolymerization of end-of-life plastic mixtures into value-added chemical feeds.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Jack Lewnard
Project Contact:
Dr. Chao Wang
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
chaowang@jhu.edu

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