Interaction between Polyethylene and Petroleum Coke Substrate during Pyrolysis

Abstract

There has been a constant growth for plastic demand globally in the past decades, and the continuing expanding trend with rapid emerging economies has increased the concerns of many parties. Various approaches of recycling waste plastic including chemical recycling, thermal recycling, and mechanical recycling has been practiced. As chemical recycling is known to be a promising method in recovering hydrocarbon compounds, which can be used in high-end product, new avenues for waste recycling need to be established. Consumable carbon anodes are a major requirement for process used for producing primary aluminum. Since carbon is a main constituent of waste plastics, which have very low impurity levels, these clearly have the potential as a cheap readily available auxiliary source of carbon in carbon anodes. Coal tar pitch, a major by-product produced in petroleum refining, is the binder of choice for carbon anodes. Pitch penetrates the pores of petroleum coke-binding particulates and gets carbonized during the baking process. In-depth wettability and interfacial phenomena investigation was carried out to study interactions between polyethylene (PE) and petroleum coke (PC). The effect pyrolysis parameters on degradation process of PE have been characterized. The wettability study of polyethylene polymer on PC substrates has been carried out.