Patent ID: 11958944
Assignee: HYBRIDWORKS CHEMICAL, LLC
Field: Organic fine chemistry (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC C  Y | IPC C

Claim 0:
1. A method for processing polyester-cotton blend textile waste, comprising:
adding polyester-cotton blend textile waste to a rotating drum of a rotary hydrolysis reactor, wherein the rotating drum has a plurality of ribs arranged on an inner surface of the rotating drum;
adding water and a base to the rotary hydrolysis reactor;
heating the water and base added to the rotary hydrolysis reactor;
hydrolyzing PET in the polyester-cotton blend textile waste into a TPA and ethylene glycol solution and solid reclaimed cotton free of PET by agitating-the heated water, base and polyester-cotton blend textile waste with the plurality of ribs by rotating the inner drum relative to a housing of the rotary hydrolysis reactor;
separating through centrifugation the TPA and ethylene glycol solution from the solid reclaimed cotton by rotating the inner drum relative to the housing of the rotating hydrolysis reactor;
directing the separated TPA and ethylene glycol solution to a hydrolysate recovery vessel:
adding acid to the separated TPA and ethylene glycol solution in the hydrolysate recovery vessel to precipitate TPA;
separating the precipitated TPA from remaining liquid in the hydrolysate recovery vessel; and
isolating ethylene glycol from remaining liquid in the hydrolysate recovery vessel.