Hydrocracking of a plastic mixture over various micro-mesoporous composite zeolites

Hydrocracking of a model waste plastic into liquid fuels of high quality was investigated over various acidic catalysts. Two micro-mesoporous composite catalysts as well as Al-SBA-15 and Al-SBA-16 catalysts were synthesized and characterized using XRD, N₂-BET, SEM, EDX, TEM, FTIR, and Py-FTIR techniques. The hydrocracking experiments were performed in a high pressure stirred batch reactor for initial cold H₂ pressure of 20 bar, residence time of 60 min, and feed to catalyst ratio of 20:1 (by wt). The reaction temperature was varied between 375 and 425 °C. It is found that the effect of the presence and type of catalyst generally is not important at elevated temperatures.