{
  "abstract": "Catalytic deconstruction of polyolefins is central to chemical recycling, but most laboratory studies use batch reactors that obscure kinetics and limit reproducibility. Flow operation enables rigorous measurement of rates and selectivities, yet processing viscous polymer melts at small scales remains challenging. Here we present a laboratory-scale flow reactor that couples a hydraulic melt pump to a stirred-tank vessel, enabling continuous and semi-continuous operation at high pressure. The system achieves pseudo-steady state, where volatile production rates reflect C–C scission kinetics, validated by a first-principles model. Using this reactor with H-ZSM-5, we demonstrate three features of polyethylene hydrocracking difficult to probe in batch systems, namely that alkene selectivities exceed batch reactions by nearly tenfold, hydrogen availability within the melt governs the balance between alkene and alkane products, and catalyst acidity and crystallite size jointly tune this product balance through intermediate diffusion from the zeolite. This reactor provides a platform for kinetic and mechanistic studies of catalytic polymer deconstruction.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Chemical Engineering",
    "Massachusetts Institute of Technology",
    "Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center",
    "National Laboratory of the Rockies",
    "BOTTLE Consortium"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Griffin Drake",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2854-5697"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Juliana Lu-Yang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Anna E. Brenner"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Joel Miscall"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Gregg T. Beckham"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Yuriy Román-Leshkov"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d7bqxtm7ve40j.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15009124/v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "d7bqxtm7ve40j",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009124/v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "1604|Zeolite Catalysis and Synthesis"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213944687",
  "pdf_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/pdf/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009124/v1",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-21",
  "publisher": "American Chemical Society (ACS)",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d7bqxtm7ve40j.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
      "native_id": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15009124",
      "source": "chemrxiv",
      "url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009124/v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:1604|Zeolite Catalysis and Synthesis",
      "subfield": "inorganic"
    }
  ],
  "title": "A bench-scale, continuous reactor for reductive polyolefin depolymerization",
  "title_text": "A bench-scale, continuous reactor for reductive polyolefin depolymerization",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d7bqxtm7ve40j",
  "venue": "ChemRxiv",
  "versions": []
}