Integrated process for treating recycled pet and ptt materials

Abstract

A process for producing a polyester polyol comprising reacting a recycle stream selected from recycled PET carpet, carpet fiber, containers, textiles, articles or mixtures thereof, with a glycol in a reactor, thereby forming a digested product stream comprising polyols, and an undigested stream; and then reacting the digested product stream with a hydrophobe selected from dimer fatty acids, trimer fatty acids, oleic acid, ricinoleic acid, tung oil, corn oil, canola oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, bacterial oil, yeast oil, algae oil, castor oil, triglycerides or alkyl carboxylate esters having saturated or unsaturated C6-C36 fatty acid units, saturated or unsaturated C6-C36 fatty acids, alkoxylated castor oil, saturated or unsaturated C9-C18 dicarboxylic acids or diols, cardanol-based products, recycled cooking oil, branched or linear C6-C36 fatty alcohols, hydroxy-functional materials derived from epoxidized, ozonized, or hydroformylated fatty esters or acids, or mixtures thereof.

We claim: 
     
         1 .- 29 . (canceled) 
     
     
         30 . A process comprising:
 (a) reacting a recycle stream comprising recycled carpet selected from PTT carpet, PET carpet or mixtures thereof, with a glycol in a reactor, thereby forming a completely digested product stream comprising polyols, and at least one undigested stream;   (b) separating the completely digested product stream from the undigested stream, thereby forming a separated digested product stream and a separated undigested product stream; and   (b) reacting the separated digested product stream in the reactor with a hydrophobe selected from dimer fatty acids, trimer fatty acids, oleic acid, ricinoleic acid, tung oil, corn oil, canola oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, bacterial oil, yeast oil, algae oil, castor oil, triglycerides or alkyl carboxylate esters having saturated or unsaturated C 6 -C 36  fatty acid units, saturated or unsaturated C 6 -C 36  fatty acids, alkoxylated castor oil, saturated or unsaturated C 9 -C 18  dicarboxylic acids, cardanol-based products, recycled cooking oil, branched or linear C 6 -C 36  fatty alcohols, hydroxy-functional materials derived from epoxidized, ozonized, or hydroformylated fatty esters or acids, or mixtures thereof, thereby forming a digested PTT polyol, a digested PET polyol or mixtures thereof.   
     
     
         31 . The process of  claim 30  wherein the recycled carpet has been produced from a process comprising:
 (a) obtaining carpet selected from post-consumer carpet, post-industrial carpet or mixtures thereof comprising fibers selected from PET carpet fibers, PTT carpet fibers or mixtures thereof attached by at least one adhesive comprising a calcium carbonate filler to at least one polymeric backing; 
 (b) separating the carpet fibers from the at least one adhesive comprising calcium carbonate filler and the at least one polymeric backing, thereby forming a separated fiber stream and a separated waste stream comprising the at least one polymeric backing, and the at least one adhesive comprising calcium carbonate filler; 
 (c) washing the separated fiber stream, thereby forming a washed fiber stream; 
 (d) drying the washed fiber stream thereby forming a dried fiber stream; 
 (e) densifying the dried fiber stream, thereby forming a densified fiber stream; and 
 (f) comminuting or pelletizing the densified fiber stream. 
 
     
     
         32 . The process of  claim 31  wherein the carpet fibers are separated from the adhesives and polypropylene-based backing in a skiving step. (original) The process of  claim 31  wherein the carpet fibers are a mixture of PET and PTT fibers. 
     
     
         34 . The process of  claim 31  wherein the carpet is a mixture of post-consumer and post-industrial carpets. 
     
     
         35 . The process of  claim 31  wherein the separated waste stream is treated in a power generation process comprising:
 combusting the waste stream to produce a combusted gas stream comprising carbon dioxide and acid gases, and a combusted solids stream comprising calcium carbonate, calcium oxide, calcium hydroxide or combinations thereof, wherein a heat of combustion is generated. 
 
     
     
         36 . The process of  claim 35 , wherein the heat of combustion is recovered by the production of steam. 
     
     
         37 . The process of  claim 36 , wherein the steam is converted to electricity in a steam turbine. 
     
     
         38 . The process of  claim 35  wherein the combusted solids stream comprises calcium carbonate. 
     
     
         39 . The process of  claim 38  wherein the calcium carbonate is recycled to a carpet backing production process. 
     
     
         40 . The process of  claim 35  wherein the combusted solids stream comprises calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide. 
     
     
         41 . The process of  claim 40  wherein the calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide is reacted with the acid gases, thereby neutralizing the acid gases. 
     
     
         42 .- 84 . (canceled)