Polyfuel - A Catalytic Thermal Cracking of Waste LDPE to Produce Liquid Fuel

Abstract

This work is the diminutive attempt towards the plastic waste recycling conducted at Department of Plastic Engineering, Government Polytechnic, Miraj. The term ‘Polyfuel’ means the liquid fuel produced from waste plastics. We have performed the experiment for conversion of waste LDPE into liquid fuel. As LDPE is the long chain hydrocarbon polymer, it has to be broken into small chains hydrocarbons which have been done by catalytic cracking of the LDPE. Coal fly ash is used as a catalyst for thermal cracking of the LDPE. The 54 % yield of process was observed during experimentation. We modified readymade mild still pressure cooker of 9 litre capacity as a reactor for this experiment. The glass condenser is used for condensing the generated vapours during process. We found 270 ml of fuel from 500 grams of waste LDPE at reaction temperature of 3000C. The source of waste LDPE is the milk pouches treated as the waste after utilisation of the milk. The fuel analysis shows that the specific gravity at 280C is 0.7466, density at 280C is 0.7228 g/cm3, viscosity is 1.38 cP, volatile matter is 100 %, flash point is 4 0C, pour point is <-5 0C, acid value is 0.058, total ash is 0.00 %, moisture content is 0.10 %, carbon residue is 0.15 %, sulphur content is 206 ppm and gross calorific value is 9970 kcal/kg.