Catalytic conversion of commingled polymer waste into chemicals and fuels over spent FCC commercial catalyst in a fluidised-bed reactor

A commingled post-consumer polymer (CPW#1) was pyrolysed over spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) commercial catalyst (ECat-1) using a laboratory fluidised-bed reactor operating isothermally at ambient pressure. The influence of reaction conditions including catalyst, temperature, ratios of commingled polymer to catalyst feed and flow rates of fluidising gas was examined. The conversion for spent FCC commercial catalyst (82.7 wt%) gave much higher yield than silicate (only 14.2 wt%) and the highest yield (nearly 87 wt%) was obtained for ZSM-5. Greater product selectivity was observed with ECat-1 as a recycled catalyst with about 56 wt% olefins products in the C3–C7 range. The selectivity could be further influenced by changes in reaction conditions. Valuable hydrocarbons of olefins and iso-olefins were produced by low temperatures and short contact times used in this study. It is also demonstrated that the use of spent FCC commercial catalyst and under appropriate reaction conditions can have the ability to control both the product yield and product distribution from polymer degradation, potentially leading to a cheaper process with more valuable products.