Preparation of Wax from Waste Plastic

Abstract

The aim of the present work address the issue of recycling of plastic by thermal pyrolysis. In this study PP waste has been converted to PP wax. The process was carried out in a semi-batch reactor with various temperature range of 350-450 °C and the different time range of 50-120 min. The waxes from pyrolysis of PP was obtained and the effect of temperature and time on product yield has been studied. The maximum yield of 59% was obtained at optimum conditions of 450 °C and 75 min. Further, the obtained product at optimum conditions has been carried out for its physical and chemical analysis. From the physical analysis studies it observed that the penetration degree of wax ranging from 0.0 – 13.3 mm, and the melting point of PP wax is observed at an optimum condition is 122 °C. As a consequence of the chemical analysis like FTIR of PP wax shows that most of the functional group are aliphatic in nature. Which was also confirmed through GCMS analysis, especially the highest of compounds are aliphatic hydrocarbons and very few of them are carbonyl and aromatics in nature. The utmost 74% of Cyclopentane, 2-propenyl is observed in PP wax. However, from 1HNMR studies it was proved that the obtained compounds were highly branched hydrocarbons. From the above result it can be proved that the wax obtained from PP pyrolysis can be used for industry and domestic purpose.