Mitsubishi Rayon has developed a practical process for the recycling on an industrial scale of PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) products by reducing them back into methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer, their original raw material, enabling the subsequent re-use of the MMA monomer for the manufacture of new PMMA products.

　It has long been known that PMMA can be easily transformed back into MMA monomer by a thermal decomposition process. At Mitsubishi Rayon, we have been recycling a marginal part of PMMA sheet in the Company by our current process, but until recently a number of practical obstacles stood in the way of the large-scale application of this process, and thus there were definite limits to the commercial feasibility of the recycling of used PMMA on the market.

　We recently developed a process that uses sand as the heat transfer medium to allow long-term continuous operation. We have constructed medium-scale pilot facilities (capacity 2,000t/year) at our Toyama Production Center, and are conducting test operations aimed at creating a commercially viable process.

　The Company has received financial assistance from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to cover the costs of construction of the test facilities and related research work, as it comes under the government’s category of expenses for the development of technology enabling the rationalization of energy use.

　We are currently working to realize the commercial viability of this process as soon as possible, so as to reduce final PMMA waste volume and contribute to the realization of a recycling-based society.

　The newly developed process will be announced at the 11th meeting of Feedstock Recycling of Plastics on September 16-17 (at the Kokusai Koryu Kaikan, Kumamoto City), and at the autumn meeting of the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan (September 24-26, Tohoku University).

Note: The closed recycling of acrylic resin products entails the recovery of used products such as signs, light-guide panels for LCD backlights, and so on for reduction to MMA monomer and subsequent production of new PMMA products.