Tohoku Electric Power Company, Inc.

Other

Hitachi Zosen Corporation

Ohei Developmental Industries, Co., Inc.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Limited

Nagoya University

Takehiko Moriya

Yoshihisa Saito

Masazumi Kanazawa

Kazuto Kobayashi

Naohiko Ukawa

Wataru Matsubara

Hisanori Kishida

Hisaaki Makino

Masaki Iijima

Takashi Hasegawa

Yoshitoshi Sekiguchi

Shigeo Hasegawa

Masato Kaneko

Kenji Iwasaki

Fangming Jin

Heiji Enomoto

Nobuyoshi Nomura

Kenji Miyaguchi

Masanori Tabata

Ryohei Ogawa

Kenji Kakeda

To provide a method capable of producing stereocomplex polylactic acid, the method being capable of using carbon neutral materials that are not competitive from foods, such as saccharides, without the use of a method for designing optical resolution, which requires complicated operations and high cost and is difficult to perform mass production. The production method of the present invention comprises: a step of reacting glycerin with sodium hydroxide in high-temperature and high-pressure water to produce a racemic sodium lactate aqueous solution; a step of separating sodium from the racemic sodium lactate aqueous solution to recover racemic lactic acid; a step of dimerizing the racemic lactic acid to produce a lactide mixture containing meso lactide and racemic lactide; a step of separating meso lactide from the mixture to recover racemic lactide; and a step of polymerizing the racemic lactide with a salen-metal complex as a catalyst to produce stereocomplex polylactic acid.

Method for producing polylactic acid

A process for producing lactic acid according to the invention is characterized in that glycerin is subjected to a hydrothermal reaction under an alkaline condition at a temperature in the range of 150 to 400&#xb0; C. and under pressure equal to or more than the saturated vapor pressure at the temperature. The glycerin produced from plant fats, animal fats or the like or pure product synthesized chemically or a discharge containing glycerin generated at the production of diesel fuel oil from fats, in which the fats are subjected to a transesterification with alcohol in the presence of an alkali catalyst in order to obtain fatty acid ester is preferably used as a starting material.

Process for production of lactic acid and equipment for the production

A method is provided for decomposition of chlorofluorocarbon to be decomposed and then disposed of. The process includes the following the steps of. A mixture of liquid chlorofluorocarbon substances to be decomposed (and then disposed of) and a liquid member are heated to a temperature of from about 500&deg; C. to about 700&deg; C. in order to produce a superheated vapor. The liquids member may be water, methanol, hydrogen peroxide, or mixtures thereof. The superheated vapor is maintained in a reactor for a sufficient reacting time in order to achieve decomposition of the chlorofluorocarbon in the mixture before passing through the reactor to a discharge outlet open to the environment.

Process for decomposing chlorofluorocarbon and system for decomposition thereof

This invention relates to equipment for treating the aforesaid waste plastics directly with supercritical water, and an object thereof is to provide a method for the anticorrosive treatment of waste plastics treating equipment which makes it possible to use inexpensive stainless steel. Waste plastics treating equipment made of stainless steel is charged with a predetermined amount of an aqueous solution containing at least one alkali metal salt, and this aqueous solution is deaerated until its dissolved oxygen content is reduced to 0.5 mg/L or less. After the temperature and pressure of the equipment are raised until supercritical conditions are established, these temperature and pressure are maintained for a predetermined period of time.

Method for the anticorrosive treatment of waste plastics treating equipment

Disclosed is an economical process for treating a large amount of plastics waste in which thermoplastics, crosslinked plastics, thermosetting plastics or a mixture thereof can be continuously and rapidly degraded and converted into oil without sorting various types of plastics waste. According to this process, powdered plastics obtained by grinding thermoplastics, crosslinked plastics, thermosetting plastics or a mixture thereof is mixed with water to form a slurry, and a dispersing agent such as a water-absorbing resin, a water-soluble polymer or a surface-active agent is added thereto. The resulting mixed slurry is fed to a tubular continuous reactor where the powdered plastics is degraded under reaction conditions causing the water to be in or near its supercritical region. Finally, oil is recovered from the reaction product.

Process and system for converting plastics waste into oil

A safe and efficient hydrothermal reaction apparatus for converting waste plastic into oil is described herein. The apparatus comprises a receiver tank for containing therein a mixture of plastic and water; a high-pressure injection pump in communication with the receiver tank through a flow passage change-over valve, the flow passage change-over valve being in communication with a water injection passage; a reactor device including a curved piping in communication with the injection pump, the curved piping being provided with a heating means; and an effluent tank in communication with the reactor device through a pressure reducing valve. The flow rate of the mixture injected into the reaction device may be controlled by regulating the pressure reducing valve. Thermal decomposition of the mixture is performed in the reactor device under pressure and temperature conditions equal to, or above, a value by which a supercritical condition of water is achieved, and under the turbulent flow conditions generated partly by the curved piping.

Apparatus for converting waste plastic into oil

A safe and efficient hydrothermal reaction apparatus is described herein. Decomposition or synthesis of object material is performed by the continuous passing of the material through a flow passage of multi-staged reactor units under turbulent flow conditions. The flow passage is formed by a curved or spiral piping. In each reactor unit, a hot plate block is included as a heating unit. The hot plate block and the curved piping are placed in an appropriate thermal contact relationship. A portion of the curved piping is freely supported, so as to accommodate stress caused in the piping under high-temperature/high-pressure conditions. A tank is provided for regulating or controlling the pressure fluctuation within the flow passage which may be caused by solids or powder present or occurring in the flow passage during high-pressure treatment. A portion of object material which has not been decomposed during the high-pressure treatment is again introduced or returned to the reactor for complete decomposition thereof after the addition of more solvent.

Hydrothermal reaction apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Sendai, Japan

Takehiko Moriya