Jet fuel and hydrogen produced from waste plastics catalytic pyrolysis with activated carbon and MgO

Erguang Huo; Hanwu Lei; Chao Liu; Yayun Zhang; Liyong Xin; Yunfeng Zhao; Moriko Qian; Qingfa Zhang; Xiaona Lin; Chenxi Wang; Wendy Mateo; Elmar M Villota; Roger Ruan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138411

Jet fuel and hydrogen produced from waste plastics catalytic pyrolysis with activated carbon and MgO

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jul 20:727:138411. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138411. Epub 2020 Apr 6.

Authors

Erguang Huo¹, Hanwu Lei², Chao Liu³, Yayun Zhang⁴, Liyong Xin³, Yunfeng Zhao⁵, Moriko Qian⁵, Qingfa Zhang⁶, Xiaona Lin⁶, Chenxi Wang⁵, Wendy Mateo⁵, Elmar M Villota⁵, Roger Ruan⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354-1671, USA; Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China.
² Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354-1671, USA. Electronic address: hlei@wsu.edu.
³ Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems, Ministry of Education, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China.
⁵ Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354-1671, USA.
⁶ Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Richland, WA 99354-1671, USA; School of Agricultural Engineering and Food Science, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, China.
⁷ Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.

PMID: 32334209
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138411

Abstract

Catalytic pyrolysis of waste plastics to produce jet fuel and hydrogen using activated carbon and MgO as catalysts was studied. The effects of catalyst to waste plastics ratio experimental temperature, catalyst placement and activated carbon to MgO ratio on the yields and distributions of pyrolysis products were studied. The placement of catalysts played an important role on the catalytic pyrolysis of LDPE, and the pyrolytic volatiles first flowing through MgO and then biomass-derived activated carbon (BAC) could obtain an excellent result to produce H₂ and jet fuel-rich products. The higher pyrolysis temperature converted diesel range alkanes into jet fuel range alkanes and promoted the aromatization of alkanes to generate aromatic hydrocarbons. BAC and MgO as catalysts had excellent performance in catalytic conversion of LDPE to produce hydrogen and jet fuel. 100 area.% jet fuel range products can be obtained in LDPE catalytic pyrolysis under desired experimental conditions. The combination of BAC and MgO as catalysts had a synergy effect on the gaseous product distribution and promoted the production of hydrogen, and up to 94.8 vol% of the obtained gaseous components belonged to hydrogen. This work provided an effective, convenient and economical pathway to produce jet fuel and hydrogen from waste plastics.

Keywords: Activated carbon; Catalytic pyrolysis; Jet fuel; MgO; Waste plastics.