PMMA recycling - Recovered MMA's distillation
Filipa
Instituto Superior Técnico, in Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, in
Portugal, and we are doing our Final Project under the theme:
Recycling poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) that concerns the recovery
of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and also the continuous manufacture of
acrylic casting sheets.
The process that we are studying suggests the distillation of the
recovered liquid with the composition that follows:
BP (ºC) Mass flow (kg/hr) Mole flow (kg/hr)
Methanol 64.7 0.100 0.003
Methyl propionate 71.8 0.996 0.011
Methyl acrylate 80 0.299 0.003
Methyl isobutyrate 92.6 1.996 0.019
Water 100 8.095 0.449
MMA 101 965.245 9.641
Butyl acrylate 148 4.599 0.036
We hope to achieve a liquid with 99.9% (mol) purity of MMA and a water
content of 500 ppm.
The problems are:
- Formation of azeotropes between MMA/Water and MMA/Methanol;
- The reduced difference of water and MMA boiling points.
We tried to simulate the distillation column on ASPEN, but without
success.
If some one knows the type of column and distillation that should be
used and how to simulate it in ASPEN we would be very appreciated and
we guarantee that the research is for academic purpose.
Frank Logullo
homopolymer should give purer MMA and less water and methanol biproduct. On
the other hand, what you are doing is closer to real commercial PMMA's as
most are copolymers.
Frank
Flemming Bonde
Hi Filipa
i am a plastic recycler in Denmark who is considering to start up recycling of
PMMA scrap. can you refer to some litterature on the subject.? especially
interesting it would be if there are descriptions of the whole proces from
scrap to purified MMA!
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for full context, visit https://www.polytechforum.com/polymers/pmma-recycling-recovered-mma-s-distillation-527-.htm
Flemming Bonde
Hi Frank
i am a danish recycler, who is thinking about recycling pmma scrap. if you can
help giving me hints as to where to find relevant information on the subject,
i would be very grateful!