Hydrocarbon fuels produced by catalytic pyrolysis of hospital plastic wastes in a fluidizing cracking process

A mixture of post-consumer polyethylene/polypropylene/polystyrene (PE/PP/PS) with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waste was pyrolyzed over cracking catalysts using a fluidizing reaction system operating isothermally at ambient pressure. The influences of catalyst types and reaction conditions including reaction temperatures, ratios of catalyst to plastic feed, flow rates of fluidizing gas and catalyst particle sizes were examined. Experiments carried out with various catalysts gave good yields of valuable hydrocarbons with differing selectivity in the final products dependent on reaction conditions. A model based on kinetic and mechanistic considerations associated with chemical reactions and catalyst deactivation in the acid-catalyzed degradation of plastics has been developed. The model gives a good representation of experimental results from the degradation of commingled plastic waste. The results of this study are useful for determining the effects of catalyst types and reaction conditions on both the product distribution and selectivity from hospital plastic waste, and especially for the utilization of post-use commercial FCC catalysts for producing valuable hydrocarbons in a fluidizing cracking process.