ABSTRACT

The objective of the work is the catalytic conversion of waste plastics into fuel oil and solid wax using Ca(OH)2 and the design of pyrolysis reactor. Plastic wastes such as, polypropylene, low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, polystyrene are the most frequently used in everyday activities and disposed of to the environment after service. There are a number of methods by which plastic wastes can be managed such as incineration, recycling, land filling, thermal and catalytic cracking. But this work focuses on catalytic cracking of waste plastic to change them into usable resources, because in this method the emission of hazardous gases to the environment is insignificant. This means we can change all the waste in to useful resources. The results obtained from this research work shows that liquid fuel as well as solid wax can be obtain from waste polyethylene. Though we are unable to collect liquid oil, it is not that it is not possible but rather this happens as a result of some faults which we can’t control at this point because of limited time and resources. From the quantity of solid wax obtained we can deduce that as we increase the catalyst weight, the wax yield decreased this implies that more of condensable and incondensable gases are formed. In conclusion, this work will serve as starting point for further research, little adjustment in design of the reactor and incorporation of some auxiliary equipment like stream of nitrogen into the system to increase the pressure build-up will help in accomplishing the objective. 

Contents

DECLARATION i

CERTIFICATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

LIST OF TABLE viii

CHAPTER ONE 1

1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Background information 2

1.2 Problem statement 5

1.3 Aim and objectives 5

1.3.1 Aim 5

1.3.2 Objectives 5

1.4 Justification 5

1.5 Scope and limitation 6

1.5.1 Scope 6

1.5.2 Limitation 6

CHAPTER TWO 7

LITERATURE REVIEW 7

1.0 SOLID WASTE 7

2.1 POLYMERS 8

2.1.1 CLASSIFICATION OF POLYMERS 8

2.1.2 POLYETHYLENE WASTE 9

2.1.3 PLASTIC WASTE 10

2.2 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT 12

2.3 PYROLYSIS 13

2.4 POLYMERS AS FUELS 22

2.5 BATCH/SEMI BATCH CATALYTIC PYROLYSIS STUDIES 23

2.6 CATALYST CONTACT MODE 25

2.7 PYROLYSIS REACTOR TYPES 25

2.8 PYROLYSIS REACTOR DESIGN 26

CHAPTER THREE 30

3.0 material and methods 30

3.1 materials and equipment 30

3.3.0 Method 33

CHAPTER FOUR 36

4.0 RESULTS 36

CHAPTER FIVE 42

5.0 DISCUSSION OF RESULT 42

CHAPTER SIX 45

6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATION 45

6.1 Conclusion: 45

6.2 Recommendations: 45

Reference 47