Abstract
Plastic bags are greatly involved in modern lifestyle, especially in food and goods packaging, creating environmental concerns on waste treatment due to their low biodegrability. A large number of plastic bags with other municipal wastes are landfilled and burned into atmosphere. Pyrolysis of these plastics is an alternative for utilizing plastic waste because it can produce valuable raw materials that can be used in petroleum and petrochemical industries. Due to high energy consumption, catalysts are also employed in plastic pyrolysis to reduce costs of operation. The pyrolysis of commercial polypropylene film was studied in a semi-batch reactor. The reaction was carried out at 500°C for 1 hour under nitrogen flow. Sulfated zirconia was employed as a catalyst. The result showed that the cracking activity increased with the catalyst to polymer ratio and the amount of sulfate loading. Liquid product was the most dominant pyrolyzed product. Moreover, the addition of catalysts resulted in gasoline production, and the acidity caused higher kerosene and gas oil production.
