Pyrolysis-catalytic steam reforming of waste plastics for enhanced hydrogen/syngas yield using sacrificial tire pyrolysis char catalyst

Pyrolysis-catalytic steam reforming of waste plastics to produce hydrogen-rich syngas has been investigated using tire char as a sacrificial catalyst in a two-stage pyrolysis-catalytic steam reforming reactor system. The simultaneous steam reforming of the pyrolysis volatiles and ‘sacrificial’ steam gasification of tire char increased the overall yield of syngas and hydrogen in the gas products. Manipulating the catalyst temperature, steam input, char catalyst:plastic ratio influenced hydrogen yield. The presence of metals such as Zn, Fe, Ca and Mg in tire char, play a catalytic role in steam reforming reactions. The syngas production achieved when the catalyst temperature was 1000 °C and steam weight hourly space velocity was 8 g h−1 g−1 catalyst was 135 mmol H2 g-1plastic and 92 mmol CO g-1plastic. However, increasing the amount of char catalyst (4:1 char catalyst:plastic ratio) enabled hydrogen yields of 211 mmol g-1plastic and total syngas yields of 360 mmol g-1plastic to be achieved.