Abstract
Thermal and catalytic degradation using spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst of waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE) at 430 °C into fuel oil were carried out with a stirred semi-batch operation. The product yield and the recovery amount, molecular weight distribution and paraffin, olefin, naphthene and aromatic (PONA) distribution of liquid product by catalytic degradation using spent FCC catalyst were compared with those by thermal degradation. The catalytic degradation had lower degradation temperature, faster liquid product rate and more olefin products as well as shorter molecular weight distributions of gasoline range in the liquid product than thermal degradation. These results confirmed that the catalytic degradation using spent FCC catalyst could be a better alternative method to solve a major environmental problem of waste plastics.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bagri, R. and Williams, P. T., “Catalytic Pyrolysis of Polyethylene”,J. Anal. Appl. Pyrol.,63, 29 (2002).
Bockhorn, H., Hornung, A. and Hornung, U., “Stepwise Pyrolysis for Raw Material Recovery from Plastic Waste”,J. Anal. Appl. Pyrol., 46, 1 (1998).
Buekens, A. G. and Huang, H., “Catalytic Plastics Cracking for Recovery of Gasoline-range Hydrocarbons from Municipal Plastic Wastes”,Res. Con. Recycl.,23, 163 (1998).
de la Puente, G., Klocker, C. and Sedran, U., “Conversion of Waste Plastics into Fuels: Recycling Polyethylene in FCC”,Appl. Catal. B,36, 279 (2002).
Jeong, S.-W., Kim, J.-H. and Seo, G., “Liquid-phase Degradation of HDPE over Alkali-treated Natural Zeolite Catalysts”,Korean J. Chem. Eng.,18, 848 (2001).
Lee, K.-H., Ha, B. H. and Lee, Y. W., “Catalytic Cracking of Vacuum Gas Oü on the Dealuminated Mordenites”,J. Catal., 178, 328 (1998).
Lee, K.-H., Ha, B. H. and Lee, Y. W., “Catalytic Cracking of Vacuum Gas Oil over the Modified Mordenites and Y-type Zeolites Mixed with Alumina”,Ind. Eng. Chem. Research,37, 1761 (1998).
Lee, K.-H., Kim, S.-K. and Shin, D.-H., “Catalytic Decomposition of Waste HDPE over Zeolite, in a Semi-batch Reactor”,J. Korean Solid Wastes Eng. Soc., 18(5), 442 (2001).
Lee, K.-H., Noh, N.-S., Shin, D.-H. and Seo, Y. H., “Comparison of Plastic Types for Catalytic Degradation of Waste Plastics into Liquid Product with Spent FCC Catalyst”,Polym. Degrad. Stab.,78, 539 (2002).
Lee, K.-H. and Shin, D.-H, “Catalytic Degradation of Waste Polyolefinic Polymers Using Spent FCC Catalyst with Various Experimental Variables”,Korean J. Chem. Eng.,20, 89 (2003).
Patel, M. K., Jochem, E., Radgen, P. and Worrell, E., “Plastics Streams in Germany-an Analysis of Production, Consumption and Waste Generation”,Res. Con. Recycl., 24, 191 (1998).
Park, J. J., Park, K. N., Park, J.-W. and Kim, D. C., “Characteristics of LDPE Pyrolysis”,Korean J. Chem. Eng.,19, 658 (2002).
Park, J. R., Yoon, J. H. and Park, D. W., “Catalytic Recycling of the Mixture of Polypropylene and Polystyrene”,Polym. Degrad. Stab.,76, 61 (2002).
Pinto, F, Costa, P., Gulyurtlu, I. and Cabrita, I., “Pyrolysis of Plastic Wastes. 1. Effect of Plastic Waste Composition on Product Yield”,J. Anal. Appl. Pyrol.,51, 39 (1999).
Sakata, Y., Uddin, M. A. and Muto, A., “Degradation of Polyethylene and Polypropylene into Fuel Oil by Using Solid Acid and Non-acid Catalysts”,J. Anal. Appl. Pyrol., 51, 135 (1999).
Seddegi, Z. S., Budrthumal, U., Al-Arfaj, A. A., Al-Amer, A. M. and Barri, S. A. I., “Catalytic Cracking of Polyethylene over All-silica MCM-41 Molecular Sieve”,Appl. Catal. A, 225, 167 (2002).
Songip, A. R., Masuda, T. and Kuwahara, H., “Test to Screen Catalysts for Reforming Heavy Oil from Waste Plastics”,Appl. Catal. B,2, 153 (1993).
Walendziewski, J., “Engine Fuel Derived from Waste Plastics by Thermal Treatment”,Fuel, 81, 473 (2002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This paper is dedicated to Dr. Youn Yong Lee on the occasion of his retirement from Korea Institute of Science and Technology.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, KH., Jeon, SG., Kim, KH. et al. Thermal and catalytic degradation of waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE) using spent FCC catalyst. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 20, 693–697 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02706909
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02706909


