Abstract
This paper reports the investigation of zeolite NaY synthesized from kaolin, a locally abundant soil material found in the Benin City metropolis, Nigeria, as a suitable catalyst and its effect on the properties of pyrolytic oil produced from used tires. The pyrolysis process was conducted from a range of 1 to 10 wt.% of catalyst concentration to the used tire at an operating temperature of 600°C, heating rate of 15°C/min, and particle size of 6 mm. An increase in the catalyst weight gave a maximum yield of catalytic pyrolytic oil (CPO) of 21.3 wt.% at a catalyst-to-tire ratio of 7.5 wt.%. Although this was lower than the noncatalyzed pyrolytic oil yield (34.40 wt.%), the quality in terms of chemical composition and hydrocarbon fuel range varied from that of the noncatalyzed pyrolytic oil, as indicated by the FT-IR, NMR, and GC-MS analyses. From the GC-MS result, the CPO gave a benzene yield higher than that of noncatalyzed pyrolytic oil. The CPO benzene yield can be ranked as CPO (5 wt.%) > CPO (1 wt.%) > CPO (10 wt.%) > CPO (7.5 wt.%) > noncatalyzed pyrolytic oil. The catalyst also improved the yield of other valuable chemicals such as ethylbenzene, o- and p-xylene, styrene, toluene, quinoline, pyrene, thiophene, P-cresol, phenol, and limonene in the pyrolytic oil. For hydrocarbon range, the catalyst displayed the potential to increase the yield of carbon range (C6–C15), which is similar to gasoline (C6–C12) and kerosene (C11–C14), with a lower yield of diesel and fuel oils (C11–C20) when compared to the noncatalyzed pyrolytic oil.
Highlights
Used tires, as an environmental nuisance and threat to land mass availability, are no longer disputed amongst the nations of the world as it has been identified as one of the difficult problems that must be addressed [1,2,3]
Is study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the zeolite NaY catalyst synthesized from kaolin on the physicochemical properties of the pyrolytic oil derived from used tires to attain commercial standard as chemicals and substitute fuel energy source
E catalyst improved the yield of other valuable chemicals such as ethylbenzene, o- and p-xylene, styrene, toluene, quinoline, pyrene, thiophene, P-cresol, phenol, and limonene. ese could be attributed to the catalyst-cracking ability of the tire molecules, dehydrogenation, and transalkylation reaction that occurred during the pyrolysis process [16, 55]. e presence of phenol and limonene in high amount in the catalytic pyrolytic oil (CPO) is an advantage to the market value of the pyrolytic oil due to the wide industrial application of these compounds
Summary
As an environmental nuisance and threat to land mass availability, are no longer disputed amongst the nations of the world as it has been identified as one of the difficult problems that must be addressed [1,2,3]. It is needful to explore available technology to convert materials such as used tires, which is on the increase because of continuous automobile demand, as an alternative source of energy. Amongst several viable technologies available for efficient tire waste management is the pyrolysis process [8, 9]. Pyrolysis does serve as an energy recovery route for used tires and the process conditions can be optimized to favor the fraction of interest and obtain other high-value products (Qunhui Lin., Guanyi Chen., 2012). E three basic products obtainable from the pyrolysis process include liquid fraction (pyrolytic oil), solid residue (char), and gases [3, 10,11,12]. Reports abound in the literature on the suitability of pyrolysis as a thermochemical method could be manipulated to achieve different objectives in used tires recycling [13, 14]
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