A marine plastic litter (MPL) sample, collected during a beach cleanup campaign, underwent thermal and catalytic pyrolyses to demonstrate that valuable hydrocarbon oil and gas can be produced from heterogeneous plastic waste, partly aged and not mechanically recyclable. A low-cost H-X zeolite lab synthesized from coal fly ash (CFA) was tested and compared with two commercial zeolites (H-USY and H-ZSM-5) commonly used in the industrial cracking field. MPL characterization revealed it is mainly composed of polyethylene and polypropylene (52 and 45 wt %, respectively), and it has ideal physicochemical properties as feed for pyrolysis processes. Thermogravimetric analyses demonstrated that catalysts can reduce the degradation temperature of MPL from 472 to 425 °C and from 450 to 421, 342, and 380 °C for H-ZSM-5, H-X/CFA, and H-USY, respectively. These results were confirmed by thermal and catalytic pyrolyses tests performed in a bench-scale reactor. All the catalytic tests were carried out at 450 °C with a liquid phase contact mode. In particular, H-X/CFA, avoiding tar and wax formation, produced up to 87 wt % of light oil with a high content of short chain aliphatic hydrocarbons, obtaining results very similar to those gained with the expensive commercial H-USY. For all the catalytic pyrolysis tests, the produced gases proved to be more than sufficient to sustain the process heat requirement.

Conversion of Marine Plastic Litter into Chemicals and Fuels through Catalytic Pyrolysis Using Commercial and Coal Fly Ash-Synthesized Zeolites / Cocchi, Marco; Cafiero, Lorenzo; De Angelis, Doina; Falasconi, Maria Beatrice; Piemonte, Vincenzo; Tuffi, Riccardo; Vecchio Ciprioti, Stefano. - In: ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING. - ISSN 2168-0485. - 11:9(2023), pp. 3644-3656. [10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c06130]

Conversion of Marine Plastic Litter into Chemicals and Fuels through Catalytic Pyrolysis Using Commercial and Coal Fly Ash-Synthesized Zeolites

Vecchio Ciprioti, Stefano
2023

Abstract

A marine plastic litter (MPL) sample, collected during a beach cleanup campaign, underwent thermal and catalytic pyrolyses to demonstrate that valuable hydrocarbon oil and gas can be produced from heterogeneous plastic waste, partly aged and not mechanically recyclable. A low-cost H-X zeolite lab synthesized from coal fly ash (CFA) was tested and compared with two commercial zeolites (H-USY and H-ZSM-5) commonly used in the industrial cracking field. MPL characterization revealed it is mainly composed of polyethylene and polypropylene (52 and 45 wt %, respectively), and it has ideal physicochemical properties as feed for pyrolysis processes. Thermogravimetric analyses demonstrated that catalysts can reduce the degradation temperature of MPL from 472 to 425 °C and from 450 to 421, 342, and 380 °C for H-ZSM-5, H-X/CFA, and H-USY, respectively. These results were confirmed by thermal and catalytic pyrolyses tests performed in a bench-scale reactor. All the catalytic tests were carried out at 450 °C with a liquid phase contact mode. In particular, H-X/CFA, avoiding tar and wax formation, produced up to 87 wt % of light oil with a high content of short chain aliphatic hydrocarbons, obtaining results very similar to those gained with the expensive commercial H-USY. For all the catalytic pyrolysis tests, the produced gases proved to be more than sufficient to sustain the process heat requirement.
2023
pyrolysis; marine plastic litter; catalyst; coal fly ash; acid zeolites; light oil
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Conversion of Marine Plastic Litter into Chemicals and Fuels through Catalytic Pyrolysis Using Commercial and Coal Fly Ash-Synthesized Zeolites / Cocchi, Marco; Cafiero, Lorenzo; De Angelis, Doina; Falasconi, Maria Beatrice; Piemonte, Vincenzo; Tuffi, Riccardo; Vecchio Ciprioti, Stefano. - In: ACS SUSTAINABLE CHEMISTRY & ENGINEERING. - ISSN 2168-0485. - 11:9(2023), pp. 3644-3656. [10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c06130]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1683264
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