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Production of valuable chemicals via multiphase catalytic pyrolysis of hazardous waste expanded polystyrene using low cost CaCO3 solid base catalyst
Summary
Researchers conducted multiphase catalytic pyrolysis of waste expanded polystyrene (WEPS) using low-cost calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as a solid base catalyst across temperatures from 400 to 700 degrees C. They found that CaCO3 catalysis at 550 degrees C produced pyrolysis oil with 93.24 wt.% styrene monomer content, significantly higher than thermal pyrolysis alone (84.74 wt.%), demonstrating high selectivity toward styrene recovery from plastic waste.
In the present research work, multiphase catalytic pyrolysis (in-situ catalytic cracking) of waste expanded polystyrene (WEPS) has been carried out using calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as a solid base catalyst. The multiphase catalytic pyrolysis of WEPS has been conducted at different temperatures ranging from 400oC to 700oC at a heating rate of 15 oC/min and feed to catalyst ratio of 20:1. The thermal pyrolysis of WEPS has produced a maximum liquid yield of 94.37 wt.% at a reaction temperature of 650oC and heating rate of 15 oC/min. Whereas, the maximum liquid yield of 85.99 wt.% is obtained at a reaction temperature of 550oC and heating rate of 15 oC/min for the multiphase catalytic pyrolysis. The GC-FID analysis confirm that the thermal pyrolysis oil is mainly composed of benzene (0.62 wt.%), toluene (10.21 wt.%), ethylbenzene (0.55 wt.%) and styrene (84.74 wt.%). Whereas, the pyrolysis oil obtained from multiphase catalytic pyrolysis using CaCO3 catalyst contains very high styrene content of 93.24 wt.% along with a very low amount of fuel range hydrocarbons benzene (0.25 wt.%), toluene (2.09 wt.%) and ethyl benzene (0.52 wt.%). Thus, the present study clearly indicates that the basic catalyst CaCO3 shows the high selectivity towards the styrene monomer.