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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Chem. Eng.
Sec. Sustainable Process Engineering
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fceng.2024.1439400
This article is part of the Research Topic Catalytic Conversion of Waste Plastics into Valuable Products View all articles

Enhancing Catalytic Pyrolysis of Polypropylene Using Mesopore-Modified HZSM-5 Catalysts: Insights and Strategies for Improved Performance

Provisionally accepted
Qing He Qing He Oguzhan Akin Oguzhan Akin Yannick Ureel Yannick Ureel Parviz Yazdani Parviz Yazdani Lingfeng Li Lingfeng Li Robin J. Varghese Robin J. Varghese Kevin M. Van Geem Kevin M. Van Geem *
  • Laboratory for Chemical Technology, Ghent University, Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Designing an active, selective, and stable catalyst for catalytic pyrolysis is crucial for its energy efficiency and economic viability. In this work, two mesopore introduction synthesis methods were employed to modify the physiochemical properties of CBV23, CBV55, and CBV80 zeolites, being NaOH and combined NaOH/CTAB treatments. Unlike the NaOH method, the NaOH/CTAB treatment preserves and enhances catalytic strong acid sites and results in a more uniform mesopore distribution. The catalytic performance of the parent and modified samples was evaluated using a two-stage micro-pyrolyzer coupled with a two-dimensional GC-FID/MS. The hierarchical CBV80-ZM, with optimized acidity, surface area, and mesopore distribution, shows excellent catalytic performance, achieving a high propylene yield of 41 wt.%. Furthermore, the total light olefins and MA yields using this catalyst reach 92 wt.%, effectively maximizing the production of high-value chemicals from PP pyrolysis. A detailed analysis of the reaction mechanism and zeolite properties revealed that the decreased weak acid site ratio and larger pore size were the cause for these high propylene yields. The obtained insights in this work regarding the effect of zeolite acidity and pore size distribution facilitate the design of tailored zeolites depending on their target product for the catalytic pyrolysis of propylene.

    Keywords: Catalytic pyrolysis, Plastic wastes, zeolite, Hierarchical catalyst, Light olefins

    Received: 27 May 2024; Accepted: 05 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 He, Akin, Ureel, Yazdani, Li, Varghese and Van Geem. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kevin M. Van Geem, Laboratory for Chemical Technology, Ghent University, Ghent, 9052, East Flanders, Belgium

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.