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Enhancing the production of renewable petrochemicals by co-feeding of biomass with plastics in catalytic fast pyrolysis with ZSM-5 zeolites

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 481; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.apcata.2014.05.015

1873-3875

Xiangyu Li, Jian Li, Guoqiang Zhou, Yujie Feng, Yujue Wang, Gang Yu, Shubo Deng, Jun Huang, Bin Wang,

Lignin and Wood Chemistry

This study investigated catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) of a series of biomass (cellulose, lignin, and pine wood), plastics (low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS)), and their mixtures with ZSM-5 zeolite. Co-feeding of cellulose with LDPE (mixing ratios of 4–1) produced much higher petrochemical (aromatics and olefins) yields (52.1–55.6 C%) and lower solid (coke/char) yields (22.6–10.9 C%) than those expected if there were no chemical interactions between the two feedstocks in co-feed CFP (37.4–39.2 C% and 25.0–15.9 C% for petrochemicals and solid, respectively, calculated by linear addition of the corresponding yields determined in CFP of cellulose and LDPE individually). This result indicates that cellulose and LDPE have a significant synergy that enhances the production of valuable petrochemicals and decreases the undesired coke in CFP. Similar synergy was also observed in co-feed CFP of pine wood and LDPE mixtures (mixing ratio of 2), which produced 49.5 C% petrochemicals and 19.5 C% solid residue. In comparison, CFP of pine wood and LDPE individually produced only 31.6 C% and 41.0 C% petrochemicals and 46.5 C% and 6.74 C% solid, respectively. This synergy, however, was less pronounced for the other combinations of biomass and plastics (cellulose/PP, cellulose/PS, and lignin/LDPE) tested in this study. The results suggest that the interactions between the primary pyrolysis products of cellulose and LDPE, especially Diels–Alder reactions of cellulose-derived furans with LDPE-derived linear α-olefins, play an important role in the synergy for petrochemical production and coke reduction in co-feed CFP. Co-feeding LDPE thus has great potential in improving the performance of CFP of natural lignocellulosic biomass, which usually contains a significant fraction (40–50 wt.%) of cellulose component.