Conversion of waste plastics into low emissive hydrocarbon fuel using catalyst produced from biowaste.

Abstract

Among the prevalent methods already in existence for the plastic waste management, catalytic pyrolysis has been proved to be an efficient one. The research work involved the synthesis of the catalyst from eucalyptus seeds, a commercially available agricultural waste product aided in pyrolysis. The raw eucalyptus seeds were cleaned, powdered, and surface-modified using sulphuric acid. Analysis of the surface-reformed eucalyptus seeds showed that they possess the characteristics equivalent to the activated carbon and micropores similar to that of zeolite which is used as a catalyst for pyrolysis. Hence, the prepared catalyst was used in the pyrolysis process and its performance was compared with that of the commercial activated carbon and zeolite. Zeolite Y generally lowers the temperature of the pyrolysis reaction to 180-190 °C, while the produced catalyst made the pyrolysis reaction possible between 120 and 130 °C. The output of the pyrolysis reaction was a hydrocarbon oil, which was analysed using gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The oil was found to have a composition between C6 and C20, which includes petroleum, kerosene, and diesel. Hence, the oil obtained was proven to be more useful, as a fuel for locomotive and reheating purposes.