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Direct liquefaction of plastics and plastic-coal mixtures

Conference ·
OSTI ID:126460
; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States)

Direct liquefaction experiments have been conducted on a variety of individual plastic resins, a mixed waste plastic prepared in the laboratory and a commingled plastic from a recycling center in Oregon provided by the American Plastics Council. Coliquefaction experiments have performed on mixtures(usually 50:50) of the waste plastics, polyethylene, and polypropylene with coal. Most of the work has been done with Black Thunder subbituminous coal. An HZSM-5 zeolite catalyst and several nanoscale binary ferrihydrite(FHYD) catalysts have been used. A range of liquefaction conditions his been explored: T = 400-460 {degrees}C, P = 100-800 psig H{sub 2}(cold) or 200-600 N{sub 2}(cold), time = 20-60 min., solvent = tetralin, waste oil, or none. The HZSM-5 catalyst is very effective for polyethylene and polypropylene, which exhibit oil yields of up to 95% and total conversions up to 100% at temperatures of 420-430 {degrees}C. With the same catalyst, the mixed waste plastics and the commingled waste plastic exhibit oil yields as high as 80-90% and total conversions of 90-95% at somewhat higher temperatures(450-465 {degrees}C). The FHYD catalysts are somewhat less active for plastic liquefaction than the HZSM-5, but also produce oil yields and total conversions that are very reasonable. A range of coliquefaction experiments were performed on plastics/coal mixtures; oil yields of 40-80% and total conversions of 70-90% were observed.

OSTI ID:
126460
Report Number(s):
CONF-950402--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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