| dc.description.abstract | In this study, thermal and catalytic pyrolysis of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP) and mixtures of LDPE/PP plastics were carried out in a batch autoclave reactor at 460 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere. The aim of this thesis is to study plastic waste pyrolysis using a catalyst to produce an environmentally friendly fuel (diesel). Before pyrolysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to study the thermal and catalytic degradation of the plastics at different heating rates (5, 10, 20, and 30 °C/min). The amount of PP was varied in the mixture to explore its role in the reaction. PP catalysed the mixtures of LDPE/PP as the ratio increases.
In the presence of catalysts, CAT-2 reduced the degradation temperature of PP and LDPE and the mixtures while CAT-3 was suitable for all. The TGA results were validated in a batch scale reactor. GC-FID was used to analyse the resulting liquid oil/wax. Thermal cracking results showed that the liquid oil/wax fractions consist of a wide range of hydrocarbon distribution (C7-C40). High yields of gasoline (C7−C12) and diesel (C13−C20) fraction in the liquid products confirm that it is a desirable way for plastics recycling. Catalyst (CAT-2) enhanced cracking at lower temperatures and narrowed the hydrocarbon distribution in the liquid oil/wax to gasoline range fraction (C7-C40).
Thermal cracking gave a wide distribution of diesel, gasoline and heavy hydrocarbon fractions while CAT-2 exhibited high selectivity for gasoline fractions. Unfortunately, the result from analysis of the catalytic liquid oil was not the expected result. | nb_NO |
