TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the potential of clay catalysts in catalytic pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste for fuel and energy recovery
AU - Cai, Wenfei
AU - Kumar, Reeti
AU - Zheng, Yixian
AU - Zhu, Zhi
AU - Wong, Jonathan W.C.
AU - Zhao, Jun
N1 - This work is supported by Hong Kong Innovation and Technology fund ( PRP/044/19FX ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Developing low-cost and high-activity catalysts is one of the keys to promoting the catalytic pyrolysis of waste plastics to fuels for plastic recycling. This work studied the effect of clay as the catalyst on mixed plastic pyrolysis for fuel and energy recovery. Four kinds of clay, including nanoclay, montmorillonite, kaolin, and hydrotalcite, were used as catalysts for the pyrolysis of mixed plastic consisted of polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene, polypropylene, low-density polyethylene, and high-density polyethylene. The product yield and distribution varied with different clay in pyrolysis. The highest yield of oil was 71.0 % when using montmorillonite as the catalyst. While the highest contents of gasoline range hydrocarbons and diesel range hydrocarbons in the oil were achieved when using kaolin and nanoclay, respectively as catalysts. For the gas products, the CO, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, and C4H10 increased with decreased CO2 in the gaseous products when using clay as catalysts. In general, the mild acidity of clay catalyst was essential to improve the oil yields and the proportion of the gasoline or diesel range fuels in the catalytic pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste.
AB - Developing low-cost and high-activity catalysts is one of the keys to promoting the catalytic pyrolysis of waste plastics to fuels for plastic recycling. This work studied the effect of clay as the catalyst on mixed plastic pyrolysis for fuel and energy recovery. Four kinds of clay, including nanoclay, montmorillonite, kaolin, and hydrotalcite, were used as catalysts for the pyrolysis of mixed plastic consisted of polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene, polypropylene, low-density polyethylene, and high-density polyethylene. The product yield and distribution varied with different clay in pyrolysis. The highest yield of oil was 71.0 % when using montmorillonite as the catalyst. While the highest contents of gasoline range hydrocarbons and diesel range hydrocarbons in the oil were achieved when using kaolin and nanoclay, respectively as catalysts. For the gas products, the CO, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, and C4H10 increased with decreased CO2 in the gaseous products when using clay as catalysts. In general, the mild acidity of clay catalyst was essential to improve the oil yields and the proportion of the gasoline or diesel range fuels in the catalytic pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste.
KW - Clay catalysts
KW - Fast pyrolysis
KW - Liquid fuel
KW - Mixed plastic waste
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85178096464&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23140
DO - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23140
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85178096464
SN - 2405-8440
VL - 9
JO - Heliyon
JF - Heliyon
IS - 12
M1 - e23140
ER -