Experimental study of polyethylene pyrolysis and combustion over HZSM-5, HUSY, and MCM-41

Que Huang; Changcheng Liu; Ruichao Wei; Jian Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.03.029

Experimental study of polyethylene pyrolysis and combustion over HZSM-5, HUSY, and MCM-41

J Hazard Mater. 2017 Jul 5:333:10-22. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.03.029. Epub 2017 Mar 14.

Authors

Que Huang¹, Changcheng Liu², Ruichao Wei¹, Jian Wang³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China. Electronic address: lcc2015pai@gmail.com.
³ State Key Laboratory of Fire Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China. Electronic address: wangj@ustc.edu.cn.

PMID: 28340385
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.03.029

Abstract

The effects of temperatures, catalysts, and catalyst contents on polyethylene (PE) pyrolysis were investigated by using single-photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SPI-TOFMS). The mass spectra of pyrolyzed PE and PE/catalysts from 300°C to 800°C illustrate that the pyrolysis reactions were apparently promoted and varied by introducing HZSM-5, HUSY, and MCM-41. As microporous catalysts, HZSM-5 and HUSY were found to accelerate the BTX formation at 400°C, which could not be observed for pure PE until 800°C. With the existence of MCM-41, only alkenes were produced below 600°C. The pyrolysis processes could to be accelerated by adding catalysts. Principal components analysis (PCA) was finally employed to identify the main factors with influence on the products distribution. Analytical results showed that the yield of the majority of products could be affected by different experimental conditions, that the type of catalysts makes the most significant influence. The impact of different types of catalysts on fire hazard of PE was studied by using the cone calorimeter. The results indicated that the time to ignition (TTI) and the peak heat release rate (pHRR) were changed remarkably. It is worth noting that with the addition of MCM-41, the pHRR is the minimum.

Keywords: A. Microporous materials; B. Organic compounds; C. Catalytic properties.