Chemical upcycling of waste polyolefinic plastics to low-carbon synthetic naphtha for closing the plastic use loop

Leilei Dai; Nan Zhou; Yuancai Lv; Yanling Cheng; Yunpu Wang; Yuhuan Liu; Kirk Cobb; Paul Chen; Hanwu Lei; Roger Ruan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146897

Chemical upcycling of waste polyolefinic plastics to low-carbon synthetic naphtha for closing the plastic use loop

Leilei Dai, Nan Zhou, Yuancai Lv, Yanling Cheng, Yunpu Wang, Yuhuan Liu, Kirk Cobb, Paul Chen, Hanwu Lei, Roger Ruan

Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

Designing an effective pathway to remove waste plastics from landfill and incineration plants and create a circular economy requires a more appropriate technology beyond the conventional mechanical recycling by melting and re-molding. This study aims to convert waste plastic into low-carbon synthetic naphtha which can be used as a feedstock for new plastic production, via a new and simple technical approach. To be specific, waste plastics are decomposed and reformed into naphtha fractions via a one-step catalytic pyrolysis over Al₂O₃ pillared montmorillonite clay catalyst. Experimental results show that Al₂O₃ pillared montmorillonite clay produces up to 60.3% C₅-C₁₂ alkanes, while ZSM-5 gives high contents of aromatics (46%) and olefins (35%). The promising results of Al₂O₃ pillared M-clay may be due to the special features of this material, including the large pore size and Al₂O₃-induced active sites (more Brønsted acid sites). The further batch experiments confirm the feasibility of scaling up and processing the polyolefinic plastic mixture.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	146897
Journal	Science of the Total Environment
Volume	782
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146897
State	Published - Aug 15 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We acknowledge the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China ( 21766019 , 21878137 ), The Centrally Guided Local Science Technology Special Project ( 20202ZDB01012 ), the Major Discipline Academic and Technical Leaders Training Program of Jiangxi Province ( 20204BCJ23011 ), China Scholarship Council (CSC), Xcel Energy , Resynergi , University of Minnesota MnDrive Environment Program MNE12 , and University of Minnesota Center for Biorefining. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC program.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

Catalytic pyrolysis
Circular economy
Naphtha
Waste plastics

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title = "Chemical upcycling of waste polyolefinic plastics to low-carbon synthetic naphtha for closing the plastic use loop",

abstract = "Designing an effective pathway to remove waste plastics from landfill and incineration plants and create a circular economy requires a more appropriate technology beyond the conventional mechanical recycling by melting and re-molding. This study aims to convert waste plastic into low-carbon synthetic naphtha which can be used as a feedstock for new plastic production, via a new and simple technical approach. To be specific, waste plastics are decomposed and reformed into naphtha fractions via a one-step catalytic pyrolysis over Al2O3 pillared montmorillonite clay catalyst. Experimental results show that Al2O3 pillared montmorillonite clay produces up to 60.3% C5-C12 alkanes, while ZSM-5 gives high contents of aromatics (46%) and olefins (35%). The promising results of Al2O3 pillared M-clay may be due to the special features of this material, including the large pore size and Al2O3-induced active sites (more Br{\o}nsted acid sites). The further batch experiments confirm the feasibility of scaling up and processing the polyolefinic plastic mixture.",

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AU - Liu, Yuhuan

AU - Cobb, Kirk

AU - Chen, Paul

AU - Lei, Hanwu

AU - Ruan, Roger

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N2 - Designing an effective pathway to remove waste plastics from landfill and incineration plants and create a circular economy requires a more appropriate technology beyond the conventional mechanical recycling by melting and re-molding. This study aims to convert waste plastic into low-carbon synthetic naphtha which can be used as a feedstock for new plastic production, via a new and simple technical approach. To be specific, waste plastics are decomposed and reformed into naphtha fractions via a one-step catalytic pyrolysis over Al2O3 pillared montmorillonite clay catalyst. Experimental results show that Al2O3 pillared montmorillonite clay produces up to 60.3% C5-C12 alkanes, while ZSM-5 gives high contents of aromatics (46%) and olefins (35%). The promising results of Al2O3 pillared M-clay may be due to the special features of this material, including the large pore size and Al2O3-induced active sites (more Brønsted acid sites). The further batch experiments confirm the feasibility of scaling up and processing the polyolefinic plastic mixture.

AB - Designing an effective pathway to remove waste plastics from landfill and incineration plants and create a circular economy requires a more appropriate technology beyond the conventional mechanical recycling by melting and re-molding. This study aims to convert waste plastic into low-carbon synthetic naphtha which can be used as a feedstock for new plastic production, via a new and simple technical approach. To be specific, waste plastics are decomposed and reformed into naphtha fractions via a one-step catalytic pyrolysis over Al2O3 pillared montmorillonite clay catalyst. Experimental results show that Al2O3 pillared montmorillonite clay produces up to 60.3% C5-C12 alkanes, while ZSM-5 gives high contents of aromatics (46%) and olefins (35%). The promising results of Al2O3 pillared M-clay may be due to the special features of this material, including the large pore size and Al2O3-induced active sites (more Brønsted acid sites). The further batch experiments confirm the feasibility of scaling up and processing the polyolefinic plastic mixture.

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Chemical upcycling of waste polyolefinic plastics to low-carbon synthetic naphtha for closing the plastic use loop

Abstract

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Keywords

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