Eastman Chemical Company

William H Heise

Michael Paul Ekart

Cheuk C Yau

Chester Wayne Sink

Joseph Franklin Knight

Earl Edmondson Howell, Jr

Candace M Stipe

Johnny W Shadden

Daniel P Folk

Michael Alan Williams

Billy J Reeves

A novel technique to treat post-consumer polyester for reuse in food-contact applications is described. The process comprises contacting contaminated post consumer polyester flake with at least one extraction solvent which is soluble in said contaminated flake at a temperature sufficient to allow rapid diffusion of contaminants from said polyester flake; and removing said extraction solvent containing said contaminants from said polyester flake.

Leaching contaminants from post-consumer for reuse in food-contact

A novel process has been developed for the crystallization of poly(ethylenenaphthalenedicarboxylate) (PEN) and its copolymers. The process comprises the step of maintaining the amount of water in said poly(ethylenenaphthalenedicarboxylate) below a critical moisture content ceiling throughout processing such that a separate drying step is not required.

Process for crystallization of poly(ethylenenaphthalenedicarboxylate)

Provided is a method useful for separating and removing impurities such as cyclohexane dimethanol (CHDM) and other additives from their mixture with dimethylterehthalate (DMT), formed during a depolymerization process such as methanolysis of poly(ethyene terephthalate) (PET), poly(cyclohexyldimethylene terephthalate) (PCT), or copolyers of PET and PCT. The separation and removal of CHDM is accomplished via either melt or solution crystallization of the DMT following excess methanol removal (via distillation) of the methanolysis reactor products.

Process for separating cyclohexane dimethanol from dimethyl terephthalate

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Kingsport, TN, United States of America

William H Heise