Pyrolysis of filled PMMA for monomer recovery

Abstract The pyrolysis of low filled poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) waste is one of the few technical processes for feedstock recycling of plastics. Highly filled PMMA was pyrolyzed in an indirect heated fluidized bed for monomer recovery and compared with experiments using pure PMMA pellets as feed. The experiments were carried out in laboratory plants with throughputs of about 1 kg h −1 and in a mini pilot plant with a throughput of 30 kg h −1 . At a temperature of 450°C acrylic glass yielded 98 wt.% of methylmethacrylate (MMA) while the amount decreased to 94% at 480°C. PMMA containing over 60% of quartz sand was pyrolyzed to 91% MMA. Other compounds are gas (2.0%), liquids (5.7%), and carbon black (1.2%).