Production of Fuel Oil from Plastic Waste Seminar Report SNG College of Engineering 2020-21

PRODUCTION OF FUEL OIL FROM MUNICIPAL
PLASTIC WASTE
SEMINAR REPORT
Submitted By,
ASWATHY M.S
SNG17CE019
to
The APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of
Bachelor of Technology
in
Civil Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

Sree Narayana Gurukulam College of Engineering
Kadayiruppu
2020-21
PRODUCTION OF FUEL OIL FROM MUNICIPAL
PLASTIC WASTE
SEMINAR REPORT
Submitted By,
ASWATHY M.S
SNG17CE019
to
The APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of
Bachelor of Technology
in
Civil Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

Sree Narayana Gurukulam College of Engineering
Kadayiruppu
2020-21
SREE NARAYANA GURUKULAM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

KADAYIRUPPU
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
Certificate
This is to certify that Seminar Report entitled ‘Production of fuel oil from municipal plastic waste’
submitted by Aswathy M.S to the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of B.Tech Degree in Civil Engineering is a bonafide record of the work done by
her under my guidance and supervision.
Guide: Coordinator: Coordinator: Coordinator:
Ms. Reshmi P R Ms. Jeena Mathew Ms. Sreepriya Mohan Ms. Reshmi P R
Asst. Professor Asst. Professor Asst. Professor Asst. Professor
Dept. of Civil Engg Dept. of Civil Engg Dept. of Civil Engg Dept. of Civil Engg
Production of fuel oil from municipal
SEMINAR REPORT 2020-21 plastic waste
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I express my heartful gratitude to the almighty god for giving me the opportunity to excel
in my efforts to do this seminar report.
I would like to express my profound gratitude to all the people who had inspired and
motivated me to complete my seminar report.
I am deeply indebted to Dr. Kempthose P Paul, Principal SNGCE. I am greatly obliged

to Prof. Dr. S. Usha, Head of Civil Department, SNGCE, for the encouragement and
support that she had provided.
I extend my sincere thanks to Ms. Reshmi P R ( Asst. Prof.) for her wholehearted support,
cooperation and guidance for my seminar.
I also take this opportunity to thank my tutors Mr. Ajith A V (Assoc. Prof) and Ms.
Sreepriya Mohan(Asst. Prof.) for their support, also my classmates for all the help that
they have extended towards me to complete this seminar.
Dept of Civil Engg i SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

ABSTRACT
Plastics have become an indispensable part of modern life today. The global production of plastics has
gone up to 299million tones per year, which believed to be increasing in the near future. The utilization
of plastics and its final disposal pose a tremendous negative significance impacts on the environment. The
aim of this seminar report is to investigate the thermal and catalytic pyrolysis for production of fuel oil
from the polyethene plastic wastes. Catalysts used in the experiment were acid activated clay mineral and
aluminum chlorides on activated carbon. Catalytic pyrolysis is more efficient than purely thermal
pyrolysis is and homogenous catalysis (aluminum chlorides) shows a better result than solid acid catalyst
(activated clay minerals) hence saving the energy needed for pyrolysis and making the process more
economically feasible.
Dept of Civil Engg ii SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

CONTENTS
DESCRIPTION PAGE No:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i
ABSTRACT ii
LIST OF FIGURES v
CHAPTER 1 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.1.1 General 1
1.1.2 Literature Review 2

1.1.3 Significance Of Topic 3
CHAPTER 2 4
2.1 WASTE TO FUEL 4

2.1.1 Materials Used 6
2.1.2 Plastics & Types 8

2.1.2.1 Polyethylene Terepthalate(PET) 9
2.1.2.2 High-Density Polyethylene(HDPE) 9
2.1.2.3 Polyvinyl Chloride(PVC) 9

2.1.2.4 Low-desnisty Polyethylene(LDPE) 9
2.1.2.5 Polypropylene(PP) 10
2.1.2.6 Polystyrene(PS) 10
2.1.2.7 Mixed plastic 10

2.2.2 Method & mechanism used 11
CHAPTER 3 15
3.1 PROCESS INVOLVED 15
Dept of Civil Engg iii SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

3.1.1 Pyrolysis of plastics 16
3.1.2 Effect Of Catalyst 18
3.1.2.1 Preparation of the natural catalyst 19
3.1.2.2. Laboratory Preparation of Inert Gas 19
3.1.2.3 Experiment setup layout for hydrocarbon fuel production 20
3.1.2.4 Using acid activated clay catalyst 20
3.1.2.5. Using aluminum chloride on activated carbon 21
3.1.2.6 Thermal pyrolysis of plastic waste 21
3.1.2.7 Data analysis method 21
3.1.3 Liquid product analysis 22
3.1.4 Process parameter conditions 22
3.1.4.1 Temperature 22
3.1.4.2 Type of reactor 22
3.1.4.3 Pressure 23
3.1.4.4 Residence time 23
3.1.4.5 Catalysts 23
CHAPTER4 24
4.1 Advantages 24
CHAPTER5 25
5.1 Conclusion 25
REFERENC ES 26
Dept of Civil Engg iv SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

LIST OF FIGURES
FigNo: TITLE PageNo:
1 Management of plastic waste 3
2 The feedstock used in the experiments 6
3 X-Ray powder diffraction pattern of 8
natural zeolite samples
4 Examples of different types of plastic 11
5 plastic shredders frame 13
6 Design of filter unit; side view 13
7 filter unit and knife design 14
8 side view of plastic shutters 15
9 plastic to fuel process 17
10 The snapshot of experimental apparatus 17
11 Set up for laboratory preparation of inert gas. 19
12 Experimental setup for hydrocarbon fuel production 20
from plastic wastes
13 Effect of different types of feedstocks 21
Dept of Civil Engg v SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

LIST OF TABLES
SI no: TITLE Page No:
1 Chemical composition and BET 8
surface area of natural zeolite (NZ)
Dept of Civil Engg vi SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

PRODUCTION OF FUEL OIL PRODUCTION
SEMINAR REPORT 2020-21 FROM MUNICIPAL PLASTIC WASTE
CHAPTER 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.1.1 General
The growth of the plastic consumption has been occuring rapidly in the last six decades
due to their ability to be simply formed, its light weight and non-corrosive behavior. These
excellent properties have been used to replace the use of wood and metals. The world’s
annual plastic consumption has increased about 20 times from 5 million tons in 1950s to
nearly 100 million tons . Landfilling is not a suitable option for disposing plastic wastes
because of their slow degradation rates. The use of incinerator generates some pollutants
to the air, which also cause environmental issues. Therefore, recycling and recovering
methods have been used to minimize the environmental impacts and to reduce the damage
of plastic wastes. Chemical recycling via pyrolysis process is one of the promising method
to recycle waste plastics which involves thermochemical decomposition of organic and
synthetic materials at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen to produce fuels. The
process is usually conducted at temperatures between 500-800oC . These pyrolytic
products can be divided into liquid fraction, gaseous fraction and solid residues . Pyrolysis
or thermal degradation of plastics have been investigated by many researchers. There are
four types of mechanisms of plastics pyrolysis i.e. end-chain scission or depolymerization,
random-chain scission, chain stripping and cross-linking. Thermal degradation behaviour
of plastics has been investigated by Aboukas etc. The activation energy and the reaction
model of the pyrolysis of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) have been estimated
for non-isothermal kinetic results. The pyrolysis reaction models of polyethylene can be
described by the “contracting sphere” model, whereas that of polypropylene can be
described by the “contracting cylinder” model.
Dept of Civil Engg 1 SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

1.1.2 Literature Review
In order to understand the available technology on plastics wastes pyrolysis, literature

review was conducted. Many studies have been conducted on High Density Polyethylene
(HDPE)Pyrolysis at different operating parameters to investigate the product yield
obtained. Ahmadetal explored the pyrolysis study of HDPE using micro steel reactor. The
pyrolysis temperatures were within 300– 400 0C at heating rate of 5–10 0C/min. Nitrogen
gas was used as the fluidizing medium. From the experiment, they found that the highest
total conversion happened to be at 350 0C with liquid was the dominant product
yield(80.88wt.%).The solid residue was very high at 3000C(33.05wt.%) but the amount
was reducing to 0.54wt.% at the highest temperature of 4000C.On the other hand, Kumar
& Singh have done the thermal pyrolysis study of HDPE using semi-batch reactor at
higher temperature range of 400–550 0C. It was observed that the highest liquid yield
(79.08 wt. %) and gaseous product (24.75 wt %) obtained at temperature of 550C while
wax started to dominate in product reaction at higher temperature of 500–550 0C. The
dark brownish oil obtained from the pyrolysis had no visible residue and the boiling point
was from 82 to 352 0C. This suggested the mixture of different oil component such as
gasoline, kerosene and diesel in the oil that matched the properties of conventional fuel.
Besides, the sulfur content in the HDPE pyrolytic oil was very low (0.019%) that made it
cleaner to the environment. As one way to recover energy and reduce waste, pyrolysis of
Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) to oil product has received much attention by vast
researchers in the recent years. Bagri & Williams have investigated the LDPE pyrolysis
in fixed-bed reactor at 500 0C with heating rate of 100C/min. The experiment was done
for duration of 20 min and nitrogen was used as fluidizing gas. It was observed that high
liquid yield of 95wt% was obtained with low gas yield and negligible char. In this
research, the investigation was carried out on the mixture of LDPE and HDPE and
determining the potentiality of chosen catalyst to degrade plastics wastes.

1.1.3 Significance Of Topic
Plastic bags are popular with consumers and retailers as they are a functional, lightweight,
strong, cheap, and hygienic way to transport food and other products. Most of these go
to landfill and garbage heaps after they are used, and some are recycled. Once littered,
plastic bags can find their way on to our streets, parks and into our waterways. Although
plastic bags make up only a small percentage of all litter, the impact of these bags is
nevertheless significant. Plastic bags create visual pollution problems and can have
harmful effects on aquatic and terrestrial animals. Plastic bags are particularly noticeable
components of the litter stream due to their size and can take a long time to fully break
down. Many carry bags end up as unsightly litter in trees, streets, parks and gardens
which, besides being ugly, can kill birds, small mammals and other creatures.
Fig.1. management of plastic waste
Source ( www.nanotech.com)
According to a nation wide survey conducted by CPCB in the year 2003. More than
10,000 MT(metric tons)of plastic waste is generated daily in our country , and only 40w%
is recycled, remaining 60 wt% is not possible to dispose off. Plastic waste contributes to
the solid waste streams by about 8-15 % by weight and twice that by volume. There are
various methods to dispose waste plastic such as land filling , incineration, blast furnace,
gasification and mostly used recycling. But these also are not able to fill the required

disposal of plastic waste. Our country faces a critical problem of fuel and energy
deficiency. The fast depletion of petroleum reserves and its rising prices affect our
economy adversely. The national production capacity is capable of fulfilling not even
30%of the total fuel demand. Remaining 70% is fulfilled by importing crude oil.
So, production of fuel oil from plastic waste will help in the disposal of plastic waste and
will also help in fulfilling the national oil demand of our country.
CHAPTER 2
2.1 WASTE TO FUEL
It is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and \or heat from the
incineration of waste. Waste to energy is a form of energy recovery . Most waste to energy
processes produce electricity and\or heat directly through combustion , or produce a
combustible fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic fuels.
The use of incinerator generates some pollutants to the air, which also cause environmental
issues. Therefore, recycling and recovering methods have been used to minimize the
environmental impacts and to reduce the damage of plastic wastes. Chemical recycling via
pyrolysis process is one of the promising method to recycle waste plastics which involves
thermochemical decomposition of organic and synthetic materials at elevated temperatures
in the absence of oxygen to produce fuels. The process is usually conducted at temperatures
between 500-800oC . These pyrolytic products can be divided into liquid fraction, gaseous
fraction and solid residues. Pyrolysis or thermal degradation of plastics have been
investigated by many researchers. There are four types of mechanisms of plastics pyrolysis
i.e. end-chain scission or depolymerization, random-chain scission, chain stripping and
cross-linking. Thermal degradation behaviour of plastics has been investigated by Aboul k
as et al. The activation energy and the reaction model of the pyrolysis of polyethylene (PE)
and polypropylene (PP) have been estimated for non-isothermal kinetic results. The
pyrolysis reaction models of polyethylene can be described by the “contracting sphere”
model, whereas that of polypropylene can be described by the “contracting cylinder”

model. The low thermal conductivity and high viscosity of plastics are the major challenges
for designing the cracking reactor. Several reactor systems have been developed and used
such as batch/semi batch , fixed bed, fluidized bed, spouted bed, microwave and screw
kiln. Batch or semi-batch reactors have been used by many researchers because of its
simple design and easy operation. However, the thermal degradation of plastics has a major
drawback such as very broad product range and requirement of high temperature. Catalytic
degradation therefore provides a means to address these problems. The use of catalyst is
expected to reduce the reaction temperature, to promote decomposition reaction, and to
improve the quality of the products. The direct catalytic cracking has been used widely due
to several advantages, mostly in terms of the energy efficiency, with regards to the use of
the reactor, the reaction temperature and the residence time. However, the direct catalytic
cracking of plastic wastes have a number of drawbacks which has prevented its commercial
success. The first relates to difficulty to recover the catalyst after use, which increases the
operational cost. Furthermore, direct contact with plastic wastes will make catalyst
deactivate rapidly due to the deposition of carbonaceous matter and the poisoning effect of
extraneous elements and impurities such as chlorine, sulfur and nitrogen containing species
that may be present in the plastic wastes. Therefore, separation of catalytic reforming
reaction from pyrolysis stage can be applied to overcome these. Pyrolysis and catalytic
reforming of MPW which comprise PE, PP and PS have been studied by Wang and Wang
over nickel-loaded silica alumina catalysts. Bhaskar et all have compared the thermal
degradation products from MPW and model mixed plastics. The presence of polyethylene
therephthalate (PET) in model mixed plastics and MPW increased the formation of new
chlorinated hydrocarbons in liquid products and also drastic decrease in the formation of
inorganic chlorine content. The role of impurities in MPW was also significant. The
impurities were toxic for acidic catalyst and led to easy deactivation of catalyst in the case
of conversion of MPW. Upgrading of pyrolytic oil produced from MPW has also been
investigated using FCC catalyst as a cracking catalyst. The addition of FCC catalyst in
degradation process showed the improvement of liquid and gas yields and also high
fraction of heavy hydrocarbons in oil product due to more cracking residue. Non-catalytic
pyrolysis process has also been studied using waste PE, PP and PS. The results showed
that waste PS produced higher liquid while waste PE and PP produced higher gaseous

products.
2.1.1 Materials Used
The feedstocks used for these experiments were three kinds of municipal plastic wastes,
i.e. polyethylene bag with (PE bag 2) and without (PE bag 1) crushing and washing, and
high density polyethylene (HDPE) waste after crushing and washing. They were obtained
from the final disposal site and the small plastic recycling company in Yogyakarta city,
Indonesia. The appearance of the feedstocks are shown in Fig. 2. The catalysts used for
these works were commercial Y zeolite and natural zeolite.The Y zeolite (CBV 780 CY)
was obtained from Zeolyst International. It has SiO2/Al2O3mole ratio of 80, the unit cell
size of 24.24 and the surface area of 780 m2/g in the powder form. The diameter of the
pellet was 1.6 mm which contains 20% of aluminum oxide as a binder. Natural zeolite
was collected from Klaten , Indonesia. The natural zeolite was calcined at 500oC for 3
hours to remove some volatile substances.
Fig. 2. The feedstock used in the experiments : (a) PE bag 1; (b) HDPE waste; and (c)
PE bag 2.
Source ( https://www.motherearthliving.com/health-and-wellness/harmful-effect-of-
plastic-zeOz1205zsch)

The chemical properties and BET surface area of natural zeolite is shown in Table 1. In
order to examine the crystalline structure in the natural zeolite, the XRD patterns of
sample is shown in Fig. 2. It vary depending on their mining sites. It can be seen that the
main structure of the natural zeolite catalyst was identified to be mordenite. Most of the
peaks observed at 2θ (degree) = 5-35 for the natural zeolite samples can be assigned to be
those of mordenite type crystalline matter as reported by Trisunaryanti et al. The samples
showed relatively broad base lines. This suggests that the samples contain amorphous and
crystalline impurities. The low thermal conductivity and high viscosity of plastics are the
major challenges for designing the cracking reactor. Several reactor systems have been
developed and used such as batch/semi batch , fixed bed, fluidized bed, spouted bed,
microwave and screw kiln. Batch or semi-batch reactors have been used by many
researchers because of its simple design and easy operation. However, the thermal
degradation of plastics has a major drawback such as very broad product range and
requirement of high temperature. Catalytic degradation therefore provides a means to
address these problems. The use of catalyst is expected to reduce the reaction temperature,
to promote decomposition reaction, and to improve the quality of the products. The direct
catalytic cracking has been used widely due to several advantages, mostly in terms of the
energy efficiency, with regards to the use of the reactor, the reaction temperature and the
residence time. However, the direct catalytic cracking of plastic wastes have a number of
drawbacks which has prevented its commercial success. The first relates to difficulty to
recover the catalyst after use, which increases the operational cost. Furthermore, direct
contact with plastic wastes will make catalyst deactivate rapidly due to the deposition of
carbonaceous matter and the poisoning effect of extraneous elements and impurities such
as chlorine, sulfur and nitrogen containing species that may be present in the plastic
wastes. Therefore, separation of catalytic reforming reaction from pyrolysis stage can be
applied to overcome these

Fig. 3. X-Ray powder diffraction pattern of natural zeolite samples.

Source ( UNIDO Report-Recycling of plastics in Indian perspective by Dr. Smita
Mohanty )
Table 1. Chemical composition and BET surface area of natural zeolite (NZ)
Source: http://cpcb.nic.in/plastic_waste.php/
Si/Al Na/Si Mg/Si K/Si Ca/Si Fe/Si SBET

ratio (m2.g-
1)
Natural 4.21 0.007 0.009 0.021 0.238 0.093 91.146

zeolite
2.1.2 Plastics & Types

Fundamentally, types of plastics have different compositions that normally reported in
terms of their analysis. Type of plastic sold in society that can be reused or recycled with
their value in chemical properties is as followed:

2.1.2.1 Polyethylene Terepthalate(PET)

PET that sold in market has the great choice in pack aging for various food products, drinks such
as mineral water, soft drink bottle and fruit juice containers. This is due to its properties that are
suitable for large-capacity production, lightweight and pressure-resistant containers . Found that
higher liquid oil yield could produce at the same operating temperature and pressure. The liquid
yield obtained was 39.89 wt%, gaseous was 52.13 wt% and solid residue was 8.98 wt%. Therefore,
it can concluded that the liquid from the PET pyrolysis obtained in the ranges of 23–
40wt%whilegaseousyieldintherangesof52–77wt%.
2.1.2.2 High-Density Polyethylene(HDPE)
HDPE wastes have a great potential to used in pyrolysis process since it can produce high
liquid yield depends on the parameters. Many studies have been conducted on HDPE
pyrolysis at different operating parameters to investigate the product yield obtained such
as[4]. found that the highest conversion using HDPE happened at 350 oC with liquid was
the dominant product yield (80.88 wt%). The solid was very high at 300 oC (33.05 wt%)
but the amount was reducing to 0.54 wt% at the highest temperature of 400 oC.
2.1.2.3 Polyvinyl Chloride(PVC)
Unlike other thermoplastics such as polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS) and

polypropylene (PP) which can softened by heating and solely derived from oil, PVC is
exceptional since it is manufactured from the mixture of 57% chlorine
thatderivedfromindustrialgradesaltand43%carbon that derived from hydrocarbon
feedstock . The research done on the PVC pyrolysis found in the literature was very less
due to the dangerous substance that it tend to release when heated at low or high
temperature.
2.1.2.4 Low-desnisty Polyethylene(LDPE)
LDPE has characteristics in long branching that results in weaker intermolecular force,
thus lower tensile strength and hardness than HDPE. However, LDPE has better ductility
than HDPE since the side branching causes the structure to be less crystalline and easy to
molded . Investigated the LDPE pyrolysis in fixed-bed reactor at temperature 500 oC

with heating rate of 10 oC/min. The experiment done for

durationof20minandnitrogenusedasfluidizinggas.Itwas observe with high liquid yield of
95 wt% was obtaine with low gas yield and negligiblechar.
2.1.2.5 Polypropylene(PP)
PP is a polymer with linear hydrocarbon chain that has a good chemical and heat
resistance. PP has a lower density than HDPE but higher hardness and rigidity that makes
it preferable in plastic industry . Study conducted by shows that PP pyrolysis within 250-
400 oC produce the highest liquid oil at temperature of 300oC around 69.82wt% with
total conversion of 98.66%.The increase in temperature to 400oC only reduced the total
productconversionto94.3% and increased solid residue from 1.34 to 5.7wt%.
2.1.2.6 Polystyrene(PS)
PS is make of styrene monomers obtained from the liquid petrochemical. The structure
consists of a long hydrocarbon chain with phenyl group attached to every other carbon
atom. PS is naturally colorless but it can be colored by colorants. It is heat resilience and
it offers reasonable durability, strength and lightness that make this polymer desirable to
used in variety of sectors such as in food packaging, electronics, construction, medical,
appliances and toys . Study of PS by shows that the pyrolysis of PS in a batch pressurized
autoclave reactor at 300–500 oC for one hour duration. The heating rate used was 10
oC/min and the experimental pressuregivenwas0.31MPaupto1.6MPa. They found that the
PS pyrolysis produced a very high liquid oil yield around 97.0 wt% at optimum
temperature of 425 oC. The largest amount of gas produced was only 2.5 wt%.
2.1.2.7 Mixed Plastic
The potential of polyolefins mixed plastics in pyrolysis explored by with composition of

46 wt% LDPE, 30 wt% HDPE and 24 wt% PP. The results showed that the liquid obtained
was higher at lower temperature of 650 oC which was around 48 wt%. However, this oil
fraction consisted of 52% heavy fraction such as heavy oil, wax and carbon black. There
is also studied of mixed plastic in pyrolysis by that shows that addition of PS with PP

further reduced the liquid oil yield down to 25% from their individual yields of 80.8 and
42% respectively.
Fig 4. Examples of different types of plastic

Source (www.nanowerk.com)
2.2.2 Method & Mechanism Used

The work principle of this shredding machine is by rotating blade using gasoline/diesel
engine. Power from the engine is transmitted by pulley and belt. The pulley serves to reduce
rotation of the engine. Plastic waste materials which has been cleaned were inserted into
the machine through inlet unit and the plastic went down to shredding blade. The shredded
plastics went out through the filter and then outlet. The main components of the machine
are machine frame, shredding knife, filter, upper casing, and mover. The frame serves as a
supporting component of the machine in which the other components are installed, such as
gasoline/diesel engine, shredding knife, and upper casing. Design of the frame is shown in
the following Fig.5. From the side view of the frame, the bulge part is a holder for the
engine. The shredding knife consists of 5 (five) blades, 3 (three) of them are rotating
following the rotation of the shaft, and 2 (two) of them are statically attached on the frame
as shown in Fig.2. The shredding process occurs while the position of the rotating blades
coincides with the static blades. Shredding blades are the soonest worn-out components of
the machine. The filter serves to ensure the plastic material is in small size to maximize the
pyrolysis reactor capacity. Each hole of the filter is designed to be 2 cm in diameter and
each hole is located by 3 cm in distance as shown in Fig.3. The filter is designed in a U-
shaped in order to ease the shredded plastics go out from the machine. The diameter of the

hole depends on the size of plastics as the feedstock of pyrolysis reactor, hence the filter
may be modified according to the required size of pyrolysis feedstock. The upper casing
serves as the inlet unit for plastic waste materials as well as the protection unit preventing
plastic materials from being thrown out due to the rotating force of the shredding knife
which may hurt people standing in the vicinity of the machine. The casing is designed in
certain angles as shown in the side view of Fig.6 in order to effectively prevent the plastic
materials splashed out on upward direction due to rotation force of the knife. The mover
unit is a gasoline/diesel engine which is capable of generating 5.5 horse power (hp). It is
attached on the bulge part of the lower frame. The engine and the pulley, as the mover of
shredding shaft, is connected by a V-shaped belt as shown in Fig.6. The overall
arrangement of the machine is also shown in Fig.6. As a whole, the machine has a
dimension of 63 cm x 50.5 cm x 136.5 cm (length x wide x height). After design process,
the machine was fabricated in a local workshop. The machine then underwent operation
test in order to observe whether the machine works as designed. The test has been carried
out by using PET bottles as the sample of plastic waste materials. The test was carried out
in rotation speed of 450 rotation per minute (rpm) without loading. During the shredding
process, the speed was decreasing into approximately 350 – 380 rpm due to the loading on
the rotating blades. The test showed the machine works well. The short testing indicates
the machine may have the production capacity of 14 kilograms shredded plastic materials
from PET bottles within an hour. This production capacity is considered as low capacity
because of a little amount of plastic waste as the sample. It caused the plastic waste was
unable to be shredded well so that the waste was also difficult to go down from the filter
unit. The shredded plastic in the filter unit was supposed to be driven by new plastic waste,
however, adding the flowing water into shredding chamber from upper casing inlet was
also helpful to drive the plastic waste out from the machine.

Fig.5 plastic shredders frame
Source(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014)
Fig.6. Design of filter unit; side view
Source (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014)

Fig.7. filter unit and knife design
Source ( https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014)
The upper casing serves as the inlet unit for plastic waste materials as well as the
protection unit preventing plastic materials from being thrown out due to the rotating force
of the shredding knife which may hurt people standing in the vicinity of the machine. The
casing is designed in certain angles as shown in the side view of Fig.7 in order to
effectively prevent the plastic materials splashed out on upward direction due to rotation
force of the knife. The mover unit is a gasoline/diesel engine which is capable of
generating 5.5 horse power (hp). It is attached on the bulge part of the lower frame.
The engine and the pulley, as the mover of shredding shaft, is connected by a V-shaped
belt as shown in Fig.8. The overall arrangement of the machine is also shown in Fig.8. As
a whole, the machine has a dimension of 63 cm x 50.5 cm x 136.5 cm (length x wide x
height).

Fig.8 side view of plastic shutters

Source( https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014)
The machine then underwent operation test in order to observe whether the machine works
as designed. The test has been carried out by using PET bottles as the sample of plastic
waste materials. The test was carried out in rotation speed of 450 rotation per minute (rpm)
without loading. During the shredding process, the speed was decreasing into
approximately 350 – 380 rpm due to the loading on the rotating blades. The test showed
the machine works well. The short testing indicates the machine may have the production
capacity of 14 kilograms shredded plastic materials from PET bottles within an hour.
CHAPTER 3
3.1 PROCESS INVOLVED

Two process are involved in the conversion of waste plastic into fuel oil.
 Basic pyrolysis process

in this, thermo chemical decomposition of organic and synthetic materials is carried out at
elevated temperature in the absence of oxygen. The process is usually conducted at
temperature range from 500-800 degree celsius . The catalyst used in this process is the
natural zeolite. A fluidized-bed reactor has been developed for converting waste plastic in
to fuel oil to reduce .
 Catalyst reforming process
It is major conversion process used in petroleum refinery & petrochemical industry. The
reforming process is a catalytic process.
3.1.1 Pyrolysis Of Plastics
Pyrolysis and catalytic reforming experiments were carried out in a pilot scale two stage
reactor using batch system. It consists of the pyrolysis reactor and the catalytic reforming
reactor. The snapshot of the experimental apparatus was shown in Fig. 4. The pyrolysis
reactor and the reformer were made of stainless steel and covered with an electric heater.
The pyrolyzer`s inner diameter and height are 200 mm and 400 mm, respectively. The
reformer`s inner diameter and height are 100 mm and 400 mm, respectively. A shell and
tube type condenser was installed at the outlet of the reformer to separate gas and liquid
products. In these experiments, 1.6-2.6 kg of the feedstock was fed into the pyrolysis
reactor. The pyrolyzer and the reformer were then heated up to the preset temperatures.
The catalyst (100 g) was loaded in the catalytic reforming reactor, where the pyrolysis gas
generated in the first reactor was reformed. After having the reforming reaction, the gas
was condensed into liquid products in the condenser. Liquid products were then collected
and weighed for mass balance calculation. The experiments were carried out at the
pyrolyzer temperature of 450°C and the reforming temperature of 450°C. The gaseous
products were burned off to prevent emission from hydrocarbon gases. Plastic products are
made from petroleum. The main constitutes are carbon and hydrogen. In other words, waste
plastics could be reversely pyrolyzed in to fuel oil. A fluidized bed reactor has been
developed for converting waste plastics in to fuel oil. Plastics are chopped and fed in to
reactor , with bubbling fluidized bed reactor, hot sands surround the chopped plastics and
heat quickly pyrolyzes the plastics in to fuel oil. Wax is produced from some of the waste
plastics and will clog the pipelines. The pyrolysis system operates continuously with a de-
wax apparatus devised to separate the wax from the fuel oil.

Fig.9. plastic to fuel process

Source ( toolkit on plastic waste management rules 2016)
Fig. 10. The snapshot of experimental apparatus

Source ( www.zerowastescotland.org.uk)
1. Reactor
This is an insulated stainless steel cylindrical reactor heated by electrical heating
coils to achieve a maximum heating temperature of 500 degree Celsius . The necessary
provision is made on the reactor for mounting the gadgets for measuring pressure,
temperature and collection of around 350 degree Celsius are condensed to around 30-35
degree Celsius .
2. Condenser

The gaseous output from the reactor is passed through a double walled condenser with
inlets and outlet for cooling water. The gaseous hydrocarbon at a temperature of around
350 degree Celsius are condensed to around 30-35 degree Celsius .
3. Receiver
The condensed hydrocarbon in the liquid from is collected in the receiver. The provision
is made for collecting the uncondensed gases in to gas collector.
4. Control panel
the complete process is controlled from the control panel. Optically the process can also
be controlled from a computer.
3.1.2 Effect Of Catalysts

Given figure shows the product yields obtained from the sequential pyrolysis and catalytic
reforming of municipal plastic wastes as the effect of catalysts. PE bag 2 has been used as
a feedstock in these experiments. It can be seen that the thermal pyrolysis (without catalyst)
produced highest liquid fraction. The presence of catalyst reduced the liquid fraction and
increased the gaseous fraction. Theoretically, the catalyst can enhance the cracking reaction
of the pyrolysis gas. Long chain hydrocarbons have been cracked into lighter hydrocarbon
gases. Pyrolysis over natural zeolite catalyst produced higher liquid product compared with
Y zeolite catalyst. This is due to different activity between natural zeolite and Y zeolite.
As can be seen in Table 1, NZ has lower BET surface area than that of Y zeolite. Higher
surface area will give more contact between catalyst and pyrolysis gas which means more
gas will be cracked to produce shorter chain hydrocarbons. However, the presence of
catalysts has slightly effect to the product yields. This might be due to the presence of
impurities as mentioned previously. The impurity which contains some toxic materials will
deactivate the catalysts. Thus, the catalysts will have the activity in the beginning of the
reforming process and deactivate in the end of the process.
3.1.2.1 Preparation of the natural catalyst
The clay material was obtained from the local swamp bed in Laroo division massed up
using a wooden roller and cut in to small cubes(approximately1cm3).The cubes were
heated in the universal hot air oven at 150oC for six hours ,allowed t o cool for one day
and crushed into fine powder using a mortar and pestle. The mixture was sieved to remove

the gravels and small stones and the fine powder mixed with 6M sulfuric acid in a glass
beaker, stirred and the mixture refluxed for 3hours and vacuum filtered. The residue in the
filter paper were washed thoroughly using distilled water several times, and the clean
residue was tested for the presence of sulfates using acidified barium nitrates to ensure that
no sulfate ion is present in the activated clay sample. It was placed inside the
universalhotairovenforanotheronedayfordrying.Thisactivatedclaymineralpowderwasmade
into a paste with starch powder and some small quantity of distilled water sand rolled into
small
cubes,driedandkeptfortheexperiment.Theadvantageofpelletizingthecatalystpowderaretopu
t easily in the catalytic bed and reduce the pressure drop, by blending the activated clay
with a starch powder, the void fraction between the inter-particles of the catalyst pellets
were increased.
3.1.2.2. Laboratory Preparation of Inert Gas
Sincethepyrolysisexperimentiscarriedoutunderaninertatmosphere,unfortunatelytheonly
limitation for this experiment that there is no nitrogen source, this limitation will be
overcome by preparing the inert gas in the laboratory by removing all the reactive gases
like oxygen, carbon dioxides, water vapor from the atmospheric air using simple laboratory
technique.
Figure 11. Set up for laboratory preparation of inert gas.


3.1.2.3 Experiment setup layout for hydrocarbon fuel production
Figure12. Experimental setup for hydrocarbon fuel production from plastic wastes
3.1.2.4 Using acid activated clay catalyst.

A mixture of HDPE and LDPE plastic resins (1:1 w/w, 200g) were fed into the reactor
flask and 20g of catalyst (10:1 w/w) was added. The electrode of the thermocouple
thermometer is inserted in
thereactorflaskandthetipwasimmersedinthefedstokecatalystmixturefromtheverticalopenin
g
andsealedcompletelyasshowninFigure2.TheinertgasgeneratedasshowninFigure1wasdirect
ly fed into set up (Figure 2). The reactor flask, placed on sand in a steel basin was heated
electrically. The inert gas was allowed to pass through the set up for some time to drive out
air and replacing it
withtheinertnitrogen.Afterflashingthesystem,anemptyballoonorTeflonbagisconnectedtoth
e side arm of the conical flask. When all the connection is made the system becomes
isolated from the surrounding in terms of air movement. The power was switched on, and

the time and temperature taken for the fed stoke to melt were recorded.
3.1.2.5. Using aluminum chloride on activated carbon

In the second session of the experiment, the procedures in subsection 3.6.1. were repeated
but with aluminum chloride on activated carbon as catalyst.
3.1.2.6. Thermal pyrolysis of plastic wastes

In the third part of the experiment, the procedures of 3.5.1. were repeated but with no
material catalyst in place.
3.1.2.7. Data analysis method

The data collected were fed on excel and statistically analyzed to determine the correlation
between temperature and the amount of oil collected.
80 80
Product yield (wt %)
60 60
Liquid yield (wt %)
40 40
20 20
0 0
No-catalyst NaturalZeolite YZeolite Nocatalyst Naturalzeolite Y-zeolite
Catalyst Catalyst
Fig. 13. Effect of different types of feedstocks on (a) the product yields; and (b) the
liquid fraction composition.
Source (www.enablon.com)

3.1.3 Liquid Product Analysis

The fraction of liquid products were analysed by using a gas chromatography-mass
spectrometry (GC-MS, QP2010S Shimadzu). The column was DB-1 (Cross bond R 100%
dimethylpolysiloxane) capillary column, 30m length with 0.25 mm diameter and 0.2 μm
film thickness. Helium was used as the carrier gas. The temperature program used was,
initial temperature 80°C for 5 min followed by a heating rate of 8 °C /min to 305 °C and
then held at 305°C for 17 min.
3.1.4 Process Parameter Conditions

Parameters play the major role in optimizing the product yield and composition in pyrolysis
process. In plastic pyrolysis, the key process parameters may influence production of final
products such as liquid oil, gaseous and char. Those important parameters may summarized
as temperature, type of reactors, pressure, residence time, catalysts, type of plastic.
3.1.4.1 Temperature
Temperature is one of the most significant operating parameters in pyrolysis since it

controls the cracking reaction of the polymer chain. When temperature in the system
increases, the vibration molecules inside the system will be greater and molecules tend to
evaporate away from the surface of the object. This happens when the energy induced by
force along the polymer chains is greater than the enthalpy of the C–C bond in the chain,
resulted in the broken of carbon chain. It was proven that the temperature has the greatest
impact on reaction rate that may influence product composition of liquid, gaseous and
char for all plastics. The operating temperature required relies strongly on the product
preference. State that if gaseous or char product preferred,
highertemperaturemorethan500oCsuggested.Ifliquidwas prefer instead, lower
temperature in the range of 300–500 oC was recommended and this condition is
applicable for all plastics.
3.1.4.2 Type of reactor
The type of reactors has important impact in the mixing of the plastics and catalysts,
residence time, heat transfer and efficiency of the reaction towards achieving the final

desired product. Most plastic pyrolysis in the lab scales performed in batch, semi-batch
or continuous-flow reactors such as fluidized bed, fixed-bed reactor and conical spouted
bed reactor (CSBR).
3.1.4.3 Pressure
Pressure affected the carbon number distribution of the liquid product by shifting the
lower molecular weight side when it was high. Pressure also had a significant effect on
the rate of double bond formation. the rate of double bond formation decreased when
pressure increased and this suggested that pressure directly affected the scission rate of
C–C links in polymer.
3.1.4.4 Residence time
Residence time can defined as average amount of time that the particle spends in the
reactor and influence product distribution. Longer residence time increases the conversion
primary product, thus more thermal stable product is yield such as light molecular weight
hydrocarbons and non- condensable gas . It seems that the longer feed or plastic intact
with heat the product will be higher in yield of product.
3.1.4.5 Catalysts
Catalyst speeds up chemical reaction but remains unchanged in the end of the process.
Catalysts are widely used in industries and researches to optimize product distribution and
increase the product selectivity. When catalyst used, the energy of the process is lowered,
thus speeds up the rate of reaction. Therefore, catalyst reduces the temperature that
required in the process and this is very crucial since the pyrolysis process requires high
energy that hinders its commercial application. The usage of catalyst may help in saving
energy as heat is one of the most expensive costs in industry.

CHAPTER 4
4.1 ADVANTAGES
 The problem of increasing waste plastics is now a global one, and one that must
be addressed in order to solve the worlds limited resource and energy problem.
 Fuel oil derived from waste plastics, a promising approach with potential
applications, not only resolve waste problem but also provide fuel oil for the
substitute for petroleum products.
 The oil can also be used in a pressurized cooking stove,
 The solid product will be used for co-firing with coal and biomass which can be
utilized as fuel for several applications

CHAPTER 5
5.1 CONCLUSION
This method allow environmental protection as future leading sources of energy and job
production. Thus invention shall lead towards the development of eco-friendly technology
for plastic waste disposal. This is a future way of economical production of high quality
synthetic diesel fuel. This technology will also be beneficial for solving the problem of
national fuel demand & save millions of foreign exchange. The pyrolysis of plastic wastes
was investigated as an effective approach to recycle plastics in the municipal plastic
wastes. Plastic wastes can easily be converted into hydrocarbon fuels using locally
available materials. In the experiments conducted it was found that more oil product was
obtained using catalytic pyrolysis at the specific temperature and the degradation of the
plastics started at lower temperature compare with purely thermal pyrolysis. Therefore,
catalytic pyrolysis is a better method of conversion of plastic wastes to fuel.
Acidactivatedclaymineralisagoodheterogeneouscrackingcatalystsinceitisrecoverableafter
use and its final disposal poses no threats to the environment. Moreover, ith as good
catalytic activity
comparedtoahomogenouscatalystwhichisunrecoverableafteruseandthedisposaloftheresid
ue poses a significant negative impact on the environment.

REFERENCE
[1] C.A. Morrow, P.B. Dusenbery, Workshops for scientists and engineers on education
and public outreach, Adv. Sp. Res. 34 (2004) 2153– 2158.
doi:10.1016/j.asr.2003.05.061.
[2] A.M.M. Farrona, R. Vilar, How can we turn a science exhibition on a really success
outreach activity?, Nucl. Part. Phys. Proc. 273–275 (2016) 1225–1228.
doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2015.09.194.
[3] E. Andrews, A. Weaver, D. Hanley, J.H. Shamatha, G. Melton, Scientists and
public outreach: Participation, motivations, and impediments, J. Geosci. Educ. 53
(2005)281293.http://cires.colorado.edu/education/outreach/rescipe/papers/andrewsJGE20
05preprint.pdf.
[4] Y. Dhokhikah, Y. Trihadiningrum, S. Sunaryo, Community participation in
household solid waste reduction in Surabaya, Indonesia, Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 102
(2015) 153–162. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.06.013.
[5] M. Syamsiro, H. Saptoadi, T. Norsujianto, P. Noviasri, S. Cheng, Z. Alimuddin,
K. Yoshikawa, Fuel oil production from municipal plastic waste in sequential pyrolysis
and catalytic reforming reactors,energy procedia.47(2014) 180-
188.doi:10.1016\j.egypro.2014.01.212.


Production of Fuel Oil from Plastic Waste Seminar Report SNG College of Engineering 2020-21

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Production of Fuel Oil from Plastic Waste Seminar Report SNG College of Engineering 2020-21

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

PRODUCTION OF FUEL OIL FROM MUNICIPAL

Department of Civil Engineering

Department of Civil Engineering

SREE NARAYANA GURUKULAM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Guide: Coordinator: Coordinator: Coordinator:

Asst. Professor Asst. Professor Asst. Professor Asst. Professor

I am deeply indebted to Dr. Kempthose P Paul, Principal SNGCE. I am greatly obliged

Dept of Civil Engg i SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

Dept of Civil Engg ii SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

DESCRIPTION PAGE No:

1.1.2 Literature Review 2

2.1 WASTE TO FUEL 4

2.1.2 Plastics & Types 8

2.1.2.3 Polyvinyl Chloride(PVC) 9

2.1.2.7 Mixed plastic 10

Dept of Civil Engg iii SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

3.1.1 Pyrolysis of plastics 16

3.1.2 Effect Of Catalyst 18

3.1.2.1 Preparation of the natural catalyst 19

3.1.2.2. Laboratory Preparation of Inert Gas 19

3.1.2.3 Experiment setup layout for hydrocarbon fuel production 20

3.1.2.4 Using acid activated clay catalyst 20

3.1.2.5. Using aluminum chloride on activated carbon 21

3.1.2.6 Thermal pyrolysis of plastic waste 21

3.1.2.7 Data analysis method 21

3.1.3 Liquid product analysis 22

3.1.4 Process parameter conditions 22

3.1.4.2 Type of reactor 22

3.1.4.4 Residence time 23

Dept of Civil Engg iv SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

FigNo: TITLE PageNo:

1 Management of plastic waste 3

2 The feedstock used in the experiments 6

3 X-Ray powder diffraction pattern of 8

natural zeolite samples

4 Examples of different types of plastic 11

5 plastic shredders frame 13

6 Design of filter unit; side view 13

7 filter unit and knife design 14

8 side view of plastic shutters 15

9 plastic to fuel process 17

10 The snapshot of experimental apparatus 17

11 Set up for laboratory preparation of inert gas. 19

12 Experimental setup for hydrocarbon fuel production 20

from plastic wastes

13 Effect of different types of feedstocks 21

Dept of Civil Engg v SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

SI no: TITLE Page No:

1 Chemical composition and BET 8

surface area of natural zeolite (NZ)

Dept of Civil Engg vi SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

Dept of Civil Engg 1 SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

1.1.2 Literature Review

In order to understand the available technology on plastics wastes pyrolysis, literature

Dept of Civil Engg 2 SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

1.1.3 Significance Of Topic

Fig.1. management of plastic waste

Dept of Civil Engg 3 SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

Dept of Civil Engg 4 SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

Dept of Civil Engg 5 SNGCE, Kadayiruppu

2.1.1 Materials Used

Dept of Civil Engg 6 SNGCE, Kadayiruppu