INFLUENCE OF THE CATALYSTS OF CATALYTIC FLUIDIZED-BED CATALYTIC CRACKING (FCC) ON THE THERMAL PROPERTIES OF SOLID POLY(ETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE) WASTE

Because of the versatility and ease of access to the raw material, the use of plastic materials has been growing rapidly in recent years in our society. Poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET), in particular, mainly used in packaging, represents a high percentage of plastics discarded after use and, therefore, new recycling methods have been developed over the recent years. Initiating studies which may in the future lead to enabling the co-processing of PET solid residue together with the loads of conventional FCC traditional processes for obtaining oil and gas, leading to a more noble allocation of PET post-consumption, the influence of two types of FCC industrial catalysts (CAT1 and CAT2), whose composition will not be revealed for reasons of industrial secrecy, on the thermal properties of the PET post-consumption, was evaluated by thermogravimetric (TG) analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), since the industrial FCC process is a thermal-catalytic process. It was observed that the catalyst CAT1 presented the best results for the aspect of formation of the least amount of residue after the thermal decomposition of the polymer, leading to a higher conversion of it into other products, and the catalyst CAT2 showed the best results regarding the decrease in the melting enthalpy of the polymer.