مشخصات پژوهش

The modern and industrial era living standards have changed the lifestyle dramatically. Considerable outdoor food consumption has increased the rate of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) production. PET implementation in packaging food, preparing drinking liquid containers in addition to other applications resulted in a massive PET waste generation that makes it the major constituent of municipal wastes. Since PET decomposition takes a very long period (over 400 years) in nature; negative impacts on the environment are inevitable. Different approaches were introduced to address the issue including burying wastes in landfills, burning in incinerators, or reusing by enforcing mechanical or chemical methods. In the chemical pathways not only recycling the materials but also energy recovery is feasible. Thus, these processes prevent the destructive effects of PET wastes on the environment. In this study, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) was conducted to assess various chemical approaches in PET recycling. Methods were included glycolysis, aminolysis, methanolysis, ammonolysis, and combined chemolysis. Besides, energy consumption, environmental impact, economic justification, and final products were chosen as criteria in the F-AHP analysis. Results indicate that energy consumption with 51.2% preference is the major criteria and the combined chemolysis with 32.2% preference is the most preferred process.