Steam reforming of polystyrene at a low temperature for high H2/CO gas with bimetallic Ni-Fe/ZrO2 catalyst

Zhou H 1 , Saad JM 2 , Li Q 3 , Xu Y 4

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland. Electronic address: zhouh@ethz.ch
  • 2 Institute of Sustainable Energy, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 3 Key Laboratory for Thermal Science and Power Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University-University of Waterloo Joint Research Center for Micro/Nano Energy & Environment Technology, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
  • 4 Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Waste Manag, 2020 Mar 01;104:42-50.
PMID: 31962216 DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2020.01.017

Abstract

Recovery of chemicals and fuels from unrecyclable waste plastics at high temperatures (>800 °C) has received much research attention. Thermodynamic equilibrium calculation suggests that it is possible to perform the low-temperature steam reforming of polystyrene. In this study, we synthesized a Ni-Fe bimetallic catalyst for the low-temperature (500 °C) steam reforming of polystyrene. XRD characterization showed that Ni-Fe alloy was formed in the catalyst. Compared to conventional Ni catalysts, the Ni-Fe bimetallic catalysts can significantly increase the H2/CO ratio in the produced gas with high gas production yield. The online gas analysis revealed that H2, CO, and CO2 were formed in the same temperature range. H2 and CO were formed simultaneously through steam reforming reactions, and CO2 was formed through water-gas shift reaction. New morphologies of carbon deposition on the catalyst surface were found, suggesting that wax could be condensed on the catalyst surface at a low temperature.

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

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