Liquefied fuel from plastic wastes using nitro cracking method with refinery distillation bubble cap plate column

Abstract

Development and modernization have resulted in an immense increase in the production of all kinds of goods, which indirectly produce waste to the globe. Plastic is one of the materials that produces more waste due to its wide range of applications that is due to its versatility and relatively low cost. In most cases, thermoplastic polymers make up a high proportion of waste and steadily increasing worldwide pollution to the environment. As a result, waste plastics pose a severe environmental challenge due to their non-biodegradable properties and disposal problems. Diverse innovations are being developed to address plastic drawbacks, which can boost the profits of the recycling industry and shrink the world plastic waste landfills. As a part of recycling, the present work is aimed at producing liquefied fuel through the nitro cracking method using a pyrolysis reactor induced with bubble cap plate column with Y zeolite as a catalyst. The liquefied fuel results produced from plastic wastes (plastics bags, plastic bottles, packing materials, and medical plastics) are compared with fuel produced from virgin plastics. The 8% higher pyrolytic oil yield is achieved compared with the results of oil produced without catalyst, and 82% of total waste plastic material is converted into liquefied fuel by the presence of a catalyst. FTIR, GC-MS, and bomb calorimeter characterized the obtained fuel results by adopting the standard ASTM methods, and the results were compared with virgin and waste plastics.

Keywords

• pyrolysis
• waste plastics
• catalyst
• ldpe