Conversion of Waste Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Polymer into Activated Carbon and Its Feasibility to Produce Green Fuel

Abstract

In this study, a novel idea was proposed to convert the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste drinking-water bottles into activated carbon (AC) to use for waste cooking oil (WCO) and palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) feasibility to convert into esters. The acidic and basic char were prepared by using the waste PET bottles. The physiochemical properties were determined by employing various analytical techniques, such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and temperature-programmed desorption – ammonia/carbon dioxide (TPD-NH3/CO2). The prepared PET H3PO4 and PET KOH showed the higher surface area, thus illustrating that the surface of both materials has enough space for impregnation of foreign precursors. The TPD-NH3 and TPD-CO2 results depicted that PET H3PO4 is found to have higher acidity, i.e., 18.17 mmolg−1, due to the attachment of phosponyl groups to it during pretreatment, whereas, in the case of PET KOH, the basicity increases to 13.49 mmolg−1. The conversion results show that prepared materials can be used as a support for an acidic and basic catalyst for the conversion of WCO and PFAD into green fuel.

Removal of Chromium (VI) in Aqueous Solution by Charcoal Adsorbent derived PET Plastic Waste

“…1 to 5, PET activated charcoal indicates a higher removal of Cr (VI) in aqueous solutions than PET charcoal. This is due to the surface area of PET activated charcoal is recorded at 262 m²/g, while that of PET charcoal is 66 m²/g [13]. A larger surface area provides larger adsorption sites.…”

Obtención De Carbón Activado a Partir De Mezclas De Residuos De Plásticos Pet Por Activación Con Ácido Fosfórico

“…En este diseño, los factores elegidos como independientes fueron la temperatura de proceso (T), el tiempo de pirólisis (tp) y la relación en peso de la impregnación (TI). Éstos fueron elegidos en base a las referencias consultadas [2,7]. Concretamente, se eligió el siguiente rango experimental:…”

PET pyrolysis: Kinetics of a‐graphite

“…Pyrolytic char from PET may be further modified to produce value added carbonaceous products like activated carbon, nanostructured carbons, synthetic graphite, etc. (Ahangar et al., 2021). However, the primary concern is to scale up the process towards the production of value added end products such as char along with an assessment of its economic feasibility following the evaluation of pyrolysis kinetic parameters (Cui et al., 2022; Guo et al., 2020).…”

“…Pyrolytic char from PET may be further modified to produce value added carbonaceous products like activated carbon, nanostructured carbons, synthetic graphite, etc. (Ahangar et al, 2021).…”