Support effects on thermocatalytic pyrolysis-reforming of polyethylene over impregnated Ni catalysts

• Main Authors: Huang, Jijiang, Veksha, Andrei, Chan, Wei Ping, Lisak, Grzegorz
• Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Environmental engineering; Polyethylene; Steam Reforming
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159736
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Syngas is a valuable intermediate for sustainable management of waste plastics, which can be converted to new monomers and chemicals. In this work, Ni catalysts were studied for syngas recovery via steam reforming of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) pyrolysis volatiles on various supports, such as Al2O3, MgO, CeO2, Y2O3, TiO2, SiO2 and ZSM-5. Two commercial catalysts (NiAl and NiCaAl) were used for comparison. The supports exhibited distinct effects on the catalytic activity, selectivity and coke formation. Ni/CeO2, Ni/Y2O3, Ni/Al2O3, NiAl and NiCaAl showed high syngas yield but these catalysts were prone to coke formation. Ni/MgO, Ni/TiO2, Ni/SiO2 and Ni/ZSM-5 were the least active. The obtained H2/CO ratios were correlated with CO selectivity, revealing the unique impacts of supports on syngas composition via water-gas shift reaction. Compared with commercial NiAl, our work demonstrated that the prepared Ni catalysts on Al2O3 and MgO were suitable candidates for steam reforming of plastic pyrolysis volatiles.