Production of hydrocarbons by catalytic degradation of low density polyethylene over Co-ZSM-5 and H-ZSM-11

MARÍA S. RENZINI; LILIANA B. PIERELLA; CLARA SAUX

Houston, Estados Unidos

Congreso; 20th North American Catalysis Society Meeting; 2007

Huge amounts of plastic wastes are generated every year due to the increasing variety of uses of plastics. Consumption of polymers in Europe between 2000 and 2002 increased by 6%, resulting in a 5% increase in plastic residues which were mainly eliminated by landfill and incineration. This causes severe environmental problems because of chemical inertness and pollutants [1]. Chemical recycling is an important technique to convert these wastes into gas and liquid hydrocarbons [2]; moreover, the addition of catalysts improves the thermal process [3] because it permits more valuable products to be obtained than in thermal processes at low temperatures and at lower reaction time. In this work we show activity results using H-ZSM-11 and Co-ZSM-5 as catalysts, analyzing temperature effect and active sites in the degradation of LDPE.