Processing of flexible plastic packaging waste into pyrolysis oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes for electrocatalytic oxygen reduction

Veksha A 1 , Yin K 2 , Moo JGS 3 , Oh WD 4 , Ahamed A 3 , Chen WQ 3 Show all authors , Weerachanchai P 3 , Giannis A 5 , Lisak G 6

Affiliations 

  • 1 Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Clean Tech One, 637141, Singapore. Electronic address: aveksha@ntu.edu.sg
  • 2 Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Clean Tech One, 637141, Singapore; College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China 210037
  • 3 Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Clean Tech One, 637141, Singapore
  • 4 School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia
  • 5 Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Clean Tech One, 637141, Singapore; School of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete (TUC), University Campus, 73100, Chania, Greece
  • 6 Residues and Resource Reclamation Centre (R3C), Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Clean Tech One, 637141, Singapore; School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore. Electronic address: g.lisak@ntu.edu.sg
J Hazard Mater, 2020 04 05;387:121256.
PMID: 31951979 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2019.121256

Abstract

Flexible plastic packaging waste causes serious environmental issues due to challenges in recycling. This study investigated the conversion of flexible plastic packaging waste with 11.8 and 27.5 wt.% polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (denoted as PET-12 and PET-28, respectively) into oil and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The mixtures were initially pyrolyzed and the produced volatiles were processed over 9.0 wt.% Fe2O3 supported on ZSM-5 (400 °C) to remove oxygenated hydrocarbons (catalytic cracking of terephthalic and benzoic acids) that deteriorate oil quality. The contents of oxygenated hydrocarbons were decreased in oil from 4.6 and 9.4 wt.% per mass of PET-12 and PET-28, respectively, to undetectable levels. After catalytic cracking, the oil samples had similar contents of gasoline, diesel and heavy oil/wax fractions. The non-condensable gas was converted into MWCNTs over 0.9 wt.% Ni supported on CaCO3 (700 °C). The type of plastic packaging influenced the yields (2.4 and 1.5 wt.% per mass of PET-12 and PET-28, respectively) and the properties of MWCNTs due to the differences in gas composition. Regarding the electrocatalytic application, both MWCNTs from PET-12 and PET-28 outperformed commercial MWCNTs and Pt-based electrodes during oxygen evolution reaction, suggesting that MWCNTs from flexible plastic packaging can potentially replace conventional electrode materials.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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