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Metadata Files

Data Publication

Unravelling Potential Reaction Intermediates during Catalytic Pyrolysis of Polypropylene with Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Ina Vollmer

Utrecht University

(2023)

Descriptions

While plastics-to-plastics recycling via melting and re-extrusion is often the preferred option due to a relatively low CO2 footprint, this technique requires a highly sorted waste stream and plastic properties can often not be maintained. Obtaining aromatics, such as benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX), via catalytic pyrolysis of polyolefins, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, offers another attractive recycling technology. In this process, a discarded crude oil refinery catalyst (ECAT) was previously shown to lower the unwanted formation of deactivating coke species compared to a fresh crude oil refinery catalyst (FCC-cat), while yielding 20 wt.% aromatics from polypropylene. In this work, we study the underlying reaction mechanism for this chemical recycling process over the fresh and used refinery catalyst as well as a model system, not containing any zeolite material, using a combination of microscopy and spectroscopy. More specifically, by using in-situ fluorescence microscopy, in-situ infrared spectroscopy, in-situ ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy as well as ex-situ solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, we observe highly fluorescent methylated aromatic intermediates that differ for the three catalyst materials under study both in their fluorescence, IR, UV-Vis, and NMR features. This detailed micro-spectroscopic comparison informs which potential reaction intermediates lead to increased coke formation. Our results suggests that a next generation of catalyst materials for this process would profit from a higher accessibility and a milder acidity compared to an FCC-cat and shows the great potential of using ECAT to reduce coking and obtain a BTX stream, which could be become the chemical building blocks for the manufacturing of e.g., plastics and coatings.

Keywords

Originally assigned keywords

Natural Sciences - Chemical sciences (1.4)

CFM

UV-Vis

TGA

NMR

MSL enriched keywords

minerals

silicate minerals

tectosilicates

zeolite

analogue modelling material

elastic modelling material

synthetic elastic material

polyethylene (LDPE) foam

measured property

iridium (Ir)

Technique

chemical and mineralogical analysis

infrared spectroscopy

MSL enriched sub domains i

geochemistry

microscopy and tomography

Source

https://public.yoda.uu.nl/science/UU01/90SYAI.html

Source publisher

Utrecht University

DOI

10.24416/uu01-90syai

Creators

Ina Vollmer

Utrecht University

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9917-1499

Contributors

Jenks, Michael J. F.

DataCollector

Utrecht University

Rejman, Sebastian

DataCollector

Utrecht University

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7976-6372

Meirer, Florian

RelatedPerson

Utrecht University

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5581-5790

Gurinov, Andrei

DataCollector

Utrecht University

Baldus, Marc

Supervisor

Utrecht University

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7068-5613

Weckhuysen, Bert M.

Supervisor

Utrecht University

ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5245-1426

References

added later

Citation

Vollmer, I. (2023). Unravelling Potential Reaction Intermediates during Catalytic Pyrolysis of Polypropylene with Microscopy and Spectroscopy (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Utrecht University. https://doi.org/10.24416/UU01-90SYAI

Dates

Updated:

2024-07-09T09:04:16

Language

Funding References

Funder name: NWO

Rights

Open - freely retrievable

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License

Datacite version

1.0