Kinetic study of the pyrolysis of polypropylene over natural clay

Abstract

Abstract Clay is widely used in numerous industrial activities; however, its application as an efficient catalyst for the decomposition of plastic waste on a commercial scale is scanty. Therefore, in this study, we have made efforts to use natural clay as the catalyst for the thermal decomposition of polypropylene in a pyrolysis setup. The pyrolysis oil obtained was found rich in hydrocarbons ranging from C8–C35. Kinetics of the pyrolysis reaction was determined utilizing thermogravimetric data and the activation energy (E) and A-factor were observed as 70.33–94.80 kJ/mol and 6 × 105–2.3 × 108 min−1 using the Ozawa-Flynn-Wall method and 58.19–74.82 kJ/mol and 4.1 × 102–4.2 × 103 min−1 applying Tang Wanjun equation. The activation energy was found to increase with enhancement in conversion presenting a complex decomposition reaction. Comparing the activation energy determined in this work with previous studies confirmed that natural clay has reduced E of decomposition reaction at high fraction conversion. The pyrolysis results supported with the kinetic investigation in this work would have potential applications in disposing of plastic waste on an industrial scale and a step forward in the field of waste management.