Toluene mediated FCC of LDPE using ionic liquids

Polyethene is one of the most widely used synthetic materials by mankind and its accumulation in biosphere is exceeding at an alarming rate. There are several methods to recycle and remediate the waste polyethene apart from landfilling, but their efficacy and availability is well below the rate that is needed. Ionic liquids are aggressively replacing several organic compounds due to their robust nature and novel properties like low volatility and ionic activity. Their depolymerization activity of converting synthetic materials into simpler short chained compounds could lead to a practical application in waste-to-fuel conversion of polyethylene. A method involving imidazolium based ionic liquid (EMIM-Cl) with aluminium chloride additive, supplemented by proton donors like concentrated acids/water has proven to be successful with a solid-gas conversion percentage of nearly 70% at 160C. This could be a novel procedure that aims to produce fuel grade products from waste synthetic polymers like polyethylene and become an effective resource recovery method.