Study on Dissolution of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE)

Abstract

The world is currently facing the problem brought by plastic waste, as well as energy crisis. It is known that catalytic cracking of low density polyethylene (LDPE) waste can produce liquid fuels with similar properties to fossil fuels, hence serve as a solution to the problems mentioned. However, the problem of pipelines clogging by molten plastic feed during the cracking process has to be solved before the process can be up-scaled to continuous process. It was proposed that LDPE waste can be dissolved in suitable solvent before being catalytically cracked under suitable conditions. This study was done to investigate the behavior of virgin LDPE (in powder form) dissolved in several chosen solvents, namely benzene, toluene, chlorobenzene, isooctane, xylene and trichloroethylene, and compare the result with previous work. From the study, it was observed that LDPE samples could dissolve in benzene and toluene to a high extent. On the other hand, isooctane acted as a weak solvent towards LDPE powder. The difference of LDPE solubility in solvents was attributed to the surface area per unit mass of LDPE samples. Despite the superior property of benzene as solvent for LDPE, the safety factor study showed that toluene, xylene and trichloroethylene were more suitable to be used in LDPE dissolution. However, care should be taken to minimize possible effects of the solvents towards the body while using the solvents mentioned.