Pyrolysis of waste plastic crusts of televisions

Abstract

The disposal of waste plastic crusts of televisions is an issue that is gaining increasing interest around the world. In this investigation, the pyrolysis and catalytic cracking of the waste television crusts mainly composed of acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene copolymer was studied. Thermogravimetric analysis was used for initial characterization of the pyrolysis of the waste plastic, but most of the investigations were carried out using a 600 mL tubing reactor. Effects of temperature, reaction time and catalyst on the pyrolysis of the waste television crusts were investigated. The results showed that the oil yield increased with increasing temperature or with prolongation of reaction time. With increasing temperature, the generating percentage of gasoline and diesel oil increased, but the heavy oil yield decreased. Zinc oxide, iron oxide and fluid catalytic cracking catalyst (FCC catalyst) were employed to perform a series of experiments. It was demonstrated that the liquid product was markedly improved and the reaction temperature decreased 100 °C when FCC was used. The composition of pyrolysis oils was analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and they contained 36.49% styrene, 19.72% benzenebutanenitrile, 12.1% α -methylstyrene and 9.69% dimethylbenzene.

Keywords:

• waste plastic
• acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene
• recycling
• pyrolysis
• catalytic cracking

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Sciences Foundation of China (Grant No. 20876079) and the Science and Technology Development Project of Shandong province (Grant no. 2010GGX10709) for financial support.