Distinguishing the impact of temperature on iron catalyst during the catalytic-pyrolysis of waste polypropylene

The catalytic pyrolysis of waste plastics with iron-based catalyst can produce H₂ rich gas, liquid oil and carbon nanotube (CNTs) together. While the catalytic pyrolysis mechanism is still unclear, in this study, the catalytic pyrolysis of polypropylene (PP) was explored in depth, and the influence of catalyst and temperature was distinguished. The results indicated that a lower temperature led to the generation of waxes, while a higher temperature promoted the formation of aromatic hydrocarbons when plastic pyrolysis was performed without a catalyst. In addition, a large number of carbon deposits, mainly in the form of spheres, were collected when the temperature was over 800 ℃. These carbon spheres originated from the agglomeration of aromatic hydrocarbons. Once catalysts were introduced, a large amount of liquid oil was transferred into carbon deposits at both lower and higher catalytic temperatures, simultaneously, leading to more light gases releasing, like hydrogen. At a lower temperature (≤ 800 ℃), it was mainly CNTs while carbon spheres are the main solid product at higher temperatures (> 800 ℃). In addition, two different mechanisms of CNTs formation were also concluded that the base-growth model dominated the of generation CNTs at 600 °C whereas the CNTs followed the tip-growth model at 800 ℃. The results show that the optimized temperature for the catalytic process should be around 800 ^o℃ where approximately 35 mmol/g_plastic hydrogen, 50% hydrogen efficiency and over 320 mg/g_plastic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were obtained.