High-yield hydrogen from thermal processing of waste plastics. Issue 1 (25th February 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Aminu, Idris; Nahil, Mohamad A.; Williams, Paul T.
• Is Part Of: Proceedings of ICE. Volume 175:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 13
• Publication Date: 2022-02-25
• Subjects: energy -- recycling & reuse of materials -- waste management & disposal; Construction industry -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Construction industry -- Waste disposal -- Periodicals; Construction industry -- Waste minimization -- Periodicals; 624.0286
• DOI: 10.1680/jwarm.20.00003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1747-6526

Abstract

Abstract : The production of hydrogen (H2 ) from the pyrolysis–catalytic steam reforming of polyethylene, polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate waste plastics was investigated using a two-stage reactor. The highest yield of hydrogen (125 mmol/gplastic ) was obtained with PS at a catalyst temperature of 900°C and steam input weight hourly space velocity of 7.59 g/(h/gcatalyst ) with a 10 wt% nickel/aluminium oxide (Ni/Al2 O3 ) catalyst. Further investigation using PS showed that the process parameters of high catalyst temperature (900°C) and optimised steam input rate significantly increased the yield of hydrogen. Examination of several different catalysts (nickel/aluminium oxide, iron/aluminium oxide, copper/aluminium oxide, cobalt/aluminium oxide) showed that nickel/aluminium oxide had by far the highest catalytic activity and selectivity towards the yield of hydrogen.