TY - JOUR
T1 - Conversion of Polypropylene Waste into Value-Added Products
T2 - A Greener Approach
AU - Nisar, Jan
AU - Aziz, Maria
AU - Shah, Afzal
AU - Shah, Iltaf
AU - Iqbal, Munawar
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan is acknowledged for grant No. 20-1491.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: Iltaf Shah graciously acknowledges the generous support of the UAE University (UPAR 12S091).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - Plastic has made our lives comfortable as a result of its widespread use in today’s world due to its low cost, longevity, adaptability, light weight and hardness; however, at the same time, it has made our lives miserable due to its non-biodegradable nature, which has resulted in en-vironmental pollution. Therefore, the focus of this research work was on an environmentally friendly process. This research work investigated the decomposition of polypropylene waste using florisil as the catalyst in a salt bath over a temperature range of 350–430◦ C. A maximum oil yield of 57.41% was recovered at 410◦ C and a 40 min reaction time. The oil collected from the decomposition of polypropylene waste was examined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The kinetic parameters of the reaction process were calculated from thermogravimetric data at temperature program rates of 3, 12, 20 and 30◦ C·min−1 using the Ozawa–Flynn–Wall (OFW) and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunnose (KAS) equations. The activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A) for the thermo-catalytic degradation of polypropylene waste were observed in the range of 102.74–173.08 kJ·mol−1 and 7.1 × 108 –9.3 × 1011 min−1 for the OFW method and 99.77–166.28 kJ·mol−1 and 1.1 × 108 –5.3 × 1011 min−1 for the KAS method at a percent conversion (α) of 0.1 to 0.9, respectively. Moreover, the fuel properties of the oil were assessed and matched with the ASTM values of diesel, gasoline and kerosene oil. The oil was found to have a close resemblance to the commercial fuel. Therefore, it was concluded that utilizing florisil as the catalyst for the decomposition of waste polypropylene not only lowered the activation energy of the pyrolysis reaction but also upgraded the quantity and quality of the oil.
AB - Plastic has made our lives comfortable as a result of its widespread use in today’s world due to its low cost, longevity, adaptability, light weight and hardness; however, at the same time, it has made our lives miserable due to its non-biodegradable nature, which has resulted in en-vironmental pollution. Therefore, the focus of this research work was on an environmentally friendly process. This research work investigated the decomposition of polypropylene waste using florisil as the catalyst in a salt bath over a temperature range of 350–430◦ C. A maximum oil yield of 57.41% was recovered at 410◦ C and a 40 min reaction time. The oil collected from the decomposition of polypropylene waste was examined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The kinetic parameters of the reaction process were calculated from thermogravimetric data at temperature program rates of 3, 12, 20 and 30◦ C·min−1 using the Ozawa–Flynn–Wall (OFW) and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunnose (KAS) equations. The activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A) for the thermo-catalytic degradation of polypropylene waste were observed in the range of 102.74–173.08 kJ·mol−1 and 7.1 × 108 –9.3 × 1011 min−1 for the OFW method and 99.77–166.28 kJ·mol−1 and 1.1 × 108 –5.3 × 1011 min−1 for the KAS method at a percent conversion (α) of 0.1 to 0.9, respectively. Moreover, the fuel properties of the oil were assessed and matched with the ASTM values of diesel, gasoline and kerosene oil. The oil was found to have a close resemblance to the commercial fuel. Therefore, it was concluded that utilizing florisil as the catalyst for the decomposition of waste polypropylene not only lowered the activation energy of the pyrolysis reaction but also upgraded the quantity and quality of the oil.
KW - fuel properties
KW - kinetic parameters
KW - oil
KW - plastic waste
KW - pyrolysis
KW - waste management
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U2 - 10.3390/molecules27093015
DO - 10.3390/molecules27093015
M3 - Article
C2 - 35566367
AN - SCOPUS:85130065691
VL - 27
JO - Molecules
JF - Molecules
SN - 1420-3049
IS - 9
M1 - 3015
ER -