Effect of natural zeolite and kaolin as a catalyst in the isothermal-catalytic cracking of real municipal solid waste (MSW) for bio-oil production

Abstract

A real MSW conversion into bio-oil by pyrolysis method had been investigated. The pyrolysis experiment was carried out in an isothermal fixed bed reactor at 400 °C for 60 min. Natural activated zeolite and kaolin catalysts were employed in this process with catalyst-MSW at ratio of 0.5 w/w. Influence of activated catalyst to pyrolysis productivity and bio-oil properties were studied. Comparison between zeolite and kaolin catalytic pyrolysis was examined and bio-oil products were analyzed by GC-MS. The yields of liquid fuel or bio-oil were found around 23.6 and 21.4% for kaolin and zeolite catalytic pyrolysis, respectively. The carbon range distribution in bio-oil were 65.38% of gasoline range (C5-C12) and 33.49% of diesel range (C13-C20) for activated kaolin catalytic cracking. Activated zeolite had 51.62% of gasoline range (C5-C12) and 48.37% of diesel range (C13-C20). The results showed that both of bio-oil products mostly contained paraffin and olefin. The use of kaolin as catalyst was better than zeolite in converting the real MSW into bio-oil.