Catalytic conversion of waste low density polyethylene into fuel oil

Waste Low density polyethylenes (LDPE) represent a source of energy and valuable chemicals, were pyrolysed catalytically in a batch reactor under atmospheric pressure. Calcium carbide was used as a catalyst to explore its effect on pyrolysis product distribution. The effect of temperature, amount of catalyst and time on the yields of the pyrolysed products was investigated. The effect of catalyst on the liquid yield was also studied. The results demonstrate that temperature has a promising effect on the yield; however high temperature, as well as high catalyst loading, caused a decline in liquid yield. The liquid obtained from catalytic pyrolysis were also characterized by physical and chemical tests. Among the physical tests Density, Specific gravity, API gravity, Viscosity, Kinematic viscosity, Aniline point, Flash point, Watson Characterization Constant, Freezing Point, Diesel Index, Refractive Index, Gross calorific value, Net calorific value and ASTM Distillation were determined according to IP and ASTM standard methods for fuel values. From the physical tests it was observed that the results for the liquid fractions are comparable with the standard results of physical tests for gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel oil. Phenols and carbonyls were quantitatively determined by spectrophotometric methods using Folin-Denis and Phenyl Hydrazine reagents respectively. The components of different hydrocarbons in the oil mixture were separated by using column chromatography and fractional distillation followed by characterization with FT-IR spectroscopy.