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Language: English

Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received June 10, 2023
Accepted November 21, 2023

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Enhanced Oil Yield by Catalytic Pyrolysis of Thermoplastics Using Cost-Eff ective Spent FCC and BaCO 3 and Its Valorization to Gasoline and Diesel Grade Fuel via Fractionation

Prathwiraj Meena Surabhi Singh Manisha Sharma¹ Virendra Kumar Saharan Suja George Rohidas Bhoi^†

Department of Chemical Engineering , Malaviya National Institute of Technology ¹Department of Chemical Engineering , Manipal University

rohidas.chem@mnit.ac.in

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, April 2024, 41(4), 1055-1075(21), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-024-00041-4

Abstract

In this work, the fossil fuel-based thermoplastics, i.e., low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene

(PS) were pyrolyzed at 450 °C, 500 °C, and 550 °C thermally and catalytically to enhance the oil yield and further enrichment

via fractionation. In the catalytic process, spent FCC (sFCC) and low-cost BaCO 3 with 10 wt% loading were used in a semibatch

quartz reactor. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTG) were carried out

at 10 °C/min for LDPE, PP, and PS to analyze the degradation behavior. Among the used catalysts, the sFCC gives higher

oil yield than BaCO 3 under identical conditions. The LDPE oil yield obtained was 55.5% and 35.7% for sFCC and BaCO 3 ,

respectively. Similar trends were observed for PP (80.0% and 70.0%) and PS (98.0% and 95.0%). Gas chromatography–mass

spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis revealed that product oil composition obtained for sFCC-catalyzed pyrolysis process was

majorly in the gasoline range (C 6 –C 12 ) whereas for BaCO 3 enabled pyrolysis in the diesel range (C 13 –C 18 ). Plausible acid

and base-catalyzed reaction mechanism and product formation are discussed for catalytic pyrolysis of PP. Fractionation of

pyrolysis oil was performed at 150 °C, 250 °C, and 350 °C and physiochemical properties as well as the visual inspection of

resulting fractions were carried out as per ASTM methods. Overall, this work represents the utilization of sFCC and low-cost

BaCO 3 catalyst to convert plastic waste into promising fuel.

Keywords

Pyrolysis · Thermoplastic · BaCO 3 · Spent FCC · Oil fractionation · GC–MS