Catalytic conversion of waste low density polyethylene into fuel oil

Subject Areas : Journal of the Iranian Chemical Research

Fazal Mabood ¹ , M Rasul Jan ² , Jasmin Shah ³ , Farah Jabeen ⁴ , Zahid Hussain ⁵

1 - Department of Chemistry, University of Malakand, Chakdara, N.W.F.P., Pakistan
2 - University of Malakand, Chakdara, N.W.F.P., Pakistan
3 - Institute of Chemical Sciences, University of Peshawar, N.W.F.P., Pakistan
4 - Department of Chemistry, Sarhad University of Science & Information Technology, Peshawar, N.W.F.P, Pakistan
5 - Department of Chemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, N.W.F.P,Pakistan

Received: 2010-02-18 Accepted : 2010-05-20 Published : 2010-12-31

Keywords: Catalytic pyrolysis, Waste LDPE, Liquid fuel, Calcium carbide,

Abstract :

Waste Low density polyethylenes (LDPE) represent a source of energy and valuablechemicals, were pyrolysed catalytically in a batch reactor under atmospheric pressure. Calciumcarbide was used as a catalyst to explore its effect on pyrolysis product distribution. The effect oftemperature, amount of catalyst and time on the yields of the pyrolysed products wasinvestigated. The effect of catalyst on the liquid yield was also studied. The results demonstratethat temperature has a promising effect on the yield; however high temperature, as well as highcatalyst loading, caused a decline in liquid yield. The liquid obtained from catalytic pyrolysiswere also characterized by physical and chemical tests. Among the physical tests Density,Specific gravity, API gravity, Viscosity, Kinematic viscosity, Aniline point, Flash point, WatsonCharacterization Constant, Freezing Point, Diesel Index, Refractive Index, Gross calorific value,Net calorific value and ASTM Distillation were determined according to IP and ASTM standardmethods for fuel values. From the physical tests it was observed that the results for the liquidfractions are comparable with the standard results of physical tests for gasoline, kerosene anddiesel fuel oil. Phenols and carbonyls were quantitatively determined by spectrophotometricmethods using Folin-Denis and Phenyl Hydrazine reagents respectively. The components ofdifferent hydrocarbons in the oil mixture were separated by using column chromatography andfractional distillation followed by characterization with FT-IR spectroscopy.

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