Zeolite catalytic pyrolysis of waste tire into fuel in gasoline hydrocarbon range

Abstract

The increasing production of automotive vehicles has led to a significant increase in the rate of waste tire generation. Approximately 160 tons/day of waste tire are produced in Bandung City which will eventually become an environmental problem. However, the pyrolysis process can be applied as a technology to treat waste tire to produce valuable hydrocarbon products. This study addressed the description effect of used tire waste on the yield, properties, and composition of tire pyrolysis oil (TPO) products. The effect of zeolite catalysts on TPO was also studied. 500 g of the waste tire was pyrolyzed using a small tube reactor containing a zeolite catalyst at various temperatures of 300-450 °C for 60 minutes. From the present work, the highest TPO product yield of 36.6 %-wt was obtained during the pyrolysis of the waste tire. The characteristics of TPO as a fuel, such as viscosity and density are close to those of gasoline fuel with a heating value of about 44 MJ/kg. The compounds contained in TPO were classified into hydrocarbon groups compounds as commercial fuel which are included as compounds of aromatics, paraffin, naphthenes, and cycloparaffins through the results of GC-MS spectrum analysis. The TPO from waste tire pyrolysis is on par with the hydrocarbon range of gasoline (C7-C11).