This article aims to examine waste plastics comprising polypropylene and polyethylene processed in a two-stage fixed bed reactor using Fe/ZSM-5 as catalysts. A series of experiments were performed in an identical environment with the objective of comparing the end products for the catalytic and thermo-catalytic process. Thermo-catalytic cracking was carried out using fixed bed reactor operating under an inert atmosphere at 400 °C. Loading of 5% Fe over HZSM-5 synthesized under optimized experimental conditions was used to enhance the cracking of polymers. The results obtained in this work exhibited a higher Paraffin/Olefin ratio than reported in the literature, where the amount of generated paraffin was greater than 60% in most cases. The GC-MS spectra confirm the presence of BTX group along with the comparable percentage of alkanes and alkenes in the liquid product obtained. The carbon chain length was narrowed to C<sub>5</sub>-C<sub>28</sub> when the zeolite catalysts were employed, as well as a significant yield of aromatics was obtained with a major percentage of naphthalene indicating that the obtained liquids are fuel-like products. The recovery of aromatic compounds especially naphthenes can be a potential source of fuel range compounds rather than as a chemical feedstock.

Plastic waste valorization to liquid fuel using Fe based zeolites

256th National Meeting (2018)

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