Polystyrene is well suitable for chemical recycling as it easily depolymerizes into its monomer. However, some waste sources contain critical additives, such as brominated flame retardants. During depolymerization of HBCD?containing polystyrene, BaO and CaO significantly reduce the bromine content of the resulting styrene. Chemical recycling is a method to close the recycling loop for polymers. This is particularly applicable for polystyrene (PS), where the monomer styrene is directly formed by depolymerization and subsequently utilized for the production of new PS. However, some waste sources contain critical additives as legacies, such as brominated flame retardants. There is a profound need to remove these substances from the material, as current thresholds do not allow such additives above certain limits in new products. In this work we present the beneficial use of basic oxides during the thermal depolymerization of a mixture of PS and 1,2,5,6,9,10?hexabromocyclododecane. It was demonstrated that especially barium oxide and calcium oxide allowed the reduction of bromine up to 96?% in the crude styrene oil.

» Publication Date: 17/05/2023

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