Study on the use of waste polypropylene-based mask in crude oil as viscosity reducer

Abstract The COVID-19 leads the use and waste of a large number of polypropylene-based masks, and improper or arbitrary disposal of waste masks will cause serious environmental pollution. In order to utilize waste masks as resources, this work prepared oil soluble crude oil fluidity improvers using waste masks as a raw materials. The effect of the layers and their mixture of masks on reducing crude oil viscosity was evaluated, and then the most effective one was compounded with other oil soluble viscosity reducers and polymers to enhance its impact on the viscosity and pour point of crude oil. The results show that the tri-component, composed of oil PP-2, polyethylene glycol and sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (named as CPPA), can reduce the viscosity of crude oil by 72.9%, depress the pour point by 7°C, reflecting excellent functional efficiency. DSC analysis shows that CPPA can reduce the wax precipitation point. CPPA can eutectic with wax crystals in crude oil, resulting in wax crystal disorder, changing intermolecular forces, and changing the crystal form of wax, thereby reducing the pour point. CPPA also interferes with the hydrogen bonds between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and colloidal macromolecules, thereby reducing viscosity. In addition, the viscosity reduction effects of other oil samples from CPPA have also been studied, indicating that CPPA has certain universal applicability, which has explored a feasible path for the resource utilization of waste masks.