Hydrocracking of surgical face masks over Y zeolites: catalyst development, process design and life cycle assessment

Muhammad Usman Azam; Auguste Fernandes; Ines Graca; Waheed Afzal

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2023.128704

Hydrocracking of surgical face masks over Y zeolites: catalyst development, process design and life cycle assessment

Muhammad Usman Azam, Auguste Fernandes, Ines Graca^* (Corresponding Author), Waheed Afzal^* (Corresponding Author)

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

This study highlights the hydrocracking route for the management of surgical face masks, made of polypropylene, into liquid fuels. Hydrocracking experiments were performed at 325 ℃ and 10 bar cold H2 pressure over Ni-loaded HY and steamed HY zeolites. Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolite demonstrated to be the best catalyst leading to considerably high conversion (100 %) and selectivity to liquids (85.5 wt%). The increase in the external surface area and mesoporous volume that improved the bulk polymer molecules diffusion, combined with the uniformly dispersed Ni particles and the additionally generated Lewis acidity, were at the origin of the observed behaviour. This catalyst also showed reasonable stability and ability to be thermally regenerated. From the environmental perspective, life cycle assessment shows the benefits of hydrocracking over pyrolysis and incineration. Therefore, our results demonstrate that Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolites could be promising catalysts for the upcycling of surgical face masks to gasoline range fuels, with minimum environmental impacts.

Original language	English
Article number	128704
Number of pages	17
Journal	Fuel
Volume	349
Early online date	22 May 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2023.128704
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgement
This study was funded by The LEVERHULME TRUST (Grant DS-2017-073). Muhammad Usman Azam, a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholar, is part of the 15 PhD scholarships of the “Leverhulme Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Production of Chemicals and Materials” at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, United Kingdom). Auguste Fernandes thanks Portuguese FCT for funding (CQE - UIDB/00100/2020 and UIDP/00100/2020; IMS-LA/P/0056/2020; contract hiring under DL57/2016 law).

Keywords

Surgical face masks
hydrocracking
hierarchical steamed zeolites
Process simulation
life cycle assessment

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.fuel.2023.128704Licence: CC BY-NC

Azam_etal_F_Hydrocracking_Of_Surgical_VoR
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/4.0/).
Final published version, 6.19 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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abstract = "This study highlights the hydrocracking route for the management of surgical face masks, made of polypropylene, into liquid fuels. Hydrocracking experiments were performed at 325 ℃ and 10 bar cold H2 pressure over Ni-loaded HY and steamed HY zeolites. Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolite demonstrated to be the best catalyst leading to considerably high conversion (100 %) and selectivity to liquids (85.5 wt%). The increase in the external surface area and mesoporous volume that improved the bulk polymer molecules diffusion, combined with the uniformly dispersed Ni particles and the additionally generated Lewis acidity, were at the origin of the observed behaviour. This catalyst also showed reasonable stability and ability to be thermally regenerated. From the environmental perspective, life cycle assessment shows the benefits of hydrocracking over pyrolysis and incineration. Therefore, our results demonstrate that Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolites could be promising catalysts for the upcycling of surgical face masks to gasoline range fuels, with minimum environmental impacts.",

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PY - 2023/10/1

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N2 - This study highlights the hydrocracking route for the management of surgical face masks, made of polypropylene, into liquid fuels. Hydrocracking experiments were performed at 325 ℃ and 10 bar cold H2 pressure over Ni-loaded HY and steamed HY zeolites. Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolite demonstrated to be the best catalyst leading to considerably high conversion (100 %) and selectivity to liquids (85.5 wt%). The increase in the external surface area and mesoporous volume that improved the bulk polymer molecules diffusion, combined with the uniformly dispersed Ni particles and the additionally generated Lewis acidity, were at the origin of the observed behaviour. This catalyst also showed reasonable stability and ability to be thermally regenerated. From the environmental perspective, life cycle assessment shows the benefits of hydrocracking over pyrolysis and incineration. Therefore, our results demonstrate that Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolites could be promising catalysts for the upcycling of surgical face masks to gasoline range fuels, with minimum environmental impacts.

AB - This study highlights the hydrocracking route for the management of surgical face masks, made of polypropylene, into liquid fuels. Hydrocracking experiments were performed at 325 ℃ and 10 bar cold H2 pressure over Ni-loaded HY and steamed HY zeolites. Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolite demonstrated to be the best catalyst leading to considerably high conversion (100 %) and selectivity to liquids (85.5 wt%). The increase in the external surface area and mesoporous volume that improved the bulk polymer molecules diffusion, combined with the uniformly dispersed Ni particles and the additionally generated Lewis acidity, were at the origin of the observed behaviour. This catalyst also showed reasonable stability and ability to be thermally regenerated. From the environmental perspective, life cycle assessment shows the benefits of hydrocracking over pyrolysis and incineration. Therefore, our results demonstrate that Ni-loaded steamed Y zeolites could be promising catalysts for the upcycling of surgical face masks to gasoline range fuels, with minimum environmental impacts.

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KW - life cycle assessment

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DO - 10.1016/j.fuel.2023.128704

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Hydrocracking of surgical face masks over Y zeolites: catalyst development, process design and life cycle assessment

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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