Catalytic Conversion of Waste Polyethene Bags (Groceries Bags) to Liquid Fuels Over 6wt%WO3/γ-Al2O3 Catalyst, Mild Temperature and Atmospheric Pressure

Abstract

The catalytic pyrolysis of waste polythene bags was conducted at a temperature of 500^oC and atmospheric pressure utilizing local fabricated pyrolysis reactor for the process. The 6wt%WO₃/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst was synthesized via impregnation method and characterized with scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and applied for the catalytic pyrolysis of waste polythene bags. The results indicated that the catalyzed reaction took shorter time to obtain the liquid fuels as against the uncatalyzed reaction and both liquid fuels resembled the conventional diesel by physical appearance (orange color) and burning properties, the caloric values of catalyzed and uncatalyzed found to be 40.8 and 39.6Mj/Kg respectively as against 40Mj/Kg of the conventional diesel. The total of thirty seven (37) compounds were identified from the uncatalyzed pyrolyzed oil while total of fifty four (54) compounds were detected in the liquid products obtained from the catalyzed pyrolyzed oil. The results revealed that 1-undecene found in the uncatalyzed products was isomerized and alkylated to 4-undecene-5-methyl (E) in the catalyzed pyrolyzed oil. Again, the 1-Dodecene that was found in the uncatalyzed product was found to be isomerized to 4-dodecene (E) in the catalyzed product. More so, 1-tridecene and 2-tetradecene detected in the uncatalyzed product were equally isomerized to 2-tridecene (E) and 7-tetradecene respectively in the catalyzed oil.