Characterization of Liquid Products Obtained from Catalytic Co-Cracking of Polypropylene Waste and Residual Fuel Oil

The characterization of the liquid produced from the co-cracking of Polypropylene extrusion grade (PPX) and Residual fuel oil (RFO) was carried out using analysis techniques like Gel Permeation chromatography (GPC), Ultimate analysis, Calorimetry analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis and Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis technique. The resulting liquid from the co-cracking of the two feedstocks in presence of catalyst Zeolite Socony Mobil–5 (ZSM-5) was observed to have high calorific values of 44.084 MJ/Kg comparable to that of the commercial diesel and therefore has the potential to be used as source of renewable fuel. The temperature and catalyst have been found to have positive synergistic effect on the heating value of the liquid product. GPC analysis has revealed that, the liquid obtained from RFO is quite complex, but the complexity is reduced by co-cracking with PPX as suggested by the reduction in the polydispersity index, while the NMR analysis shows that the liquid obtained from the co-cracking was more of aliphatic in nature. The FTIR spectrum obtained from the co-cracking of RFO and PPX both in the presence and absence of catalyst was observed to be a mixed spectrum of their individual component and addition of catalyst had an insignificant effect on the properties of the resulting liquid except in the calorific values which were increased. The spectrum shows that the liquid product was dominated by the presence of alkanes and alkenes.