Polymer Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis of plastics into fuel oil is a very effective technology that can help with environmental pollution and energy challenges. The experimental results on pyrolysis of high-density polyethene (HDPE) at 500 Celsius, suggest that the main products are light oils (C5-C10), including paraffins, mono-olefins, di-olefins, and aromatics. Improving product selectivity would rely on a deeper understanding of the pyrolysis reaction mechanism. In this work, we provided an atomic-scale understanding of HDPE pyrolysis yielding paraffins, olefins, and dienes by radical intermediates, which is in near quantitative agreement with our experimentally determined product distribution. Therefore, our proposed mechanisms can provide atomic-scale insights for the polymer pyrolysis mechanism and guide the further optimization of the product distribution of pyrolysis oil.
Keywords: Polymer Pyrolysis; HDPE; (L)LLDPE; PP
Publications:
- Houqian Li, Jiayang Wu, Zhen Jiang, Jiaze Ma, Victor M. Zavala, Clark R. Landis, Manos Mavrikakis, George W. Huber Science 381, 660-666 (2023)