Pyrolysis of waste tire on ZSM-5 zeolite with enhanced catalytic activities

Catalytic copyrolysis of waste tires over ZSM-5 zeolite with lubricant base oil (LBO) was undertaken at 430 °C under nitrogen atmosphere in a batch mode, and the pyrolysis oils were characterized using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). By combining with LBO, the ZSM-5 catalyzed pyrolysis system of tires has a sharply enhanced degradation rate. Compared to the pyrolysis without LBO, the liquid yield is increased from 33.6% to 48.0%, while the gas and the residue yields are decreased. In the pyrolysis oils, the content of heavy components is decreased and the content of light oils (n-C ≤ 12) is increased from 77.8%(without LBO) to 83.1%(with LBO); especially, the content of C₁₀ components has a sharp increase. Moreover, the liquid compositions are changed. Particularly, the percentage of limonene increased dramatically from 7.54% for thermal degradation to 13.58%. These results suggest that the enhanced catalytic effects on pyrolysis of tires in the catalytic systems are due to the improved interactions between tires and catalysts with the help of LBO. Therefore, it is possible to improve the process economics of scrap tires by catalytic copyrolysis with LBO, which can not only increase the pyrolysis rate remarkably but also produce high-value oil products.