Coliquefaction of coal and waste plastic using boron trifluoride etherate as catalyst at moderate conditions

It is found coliquefaction of coal and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) using boron trifluoride etherate as catalyst and adding a small quantity of sodium lignosulfonate at 380°C enhance coal depolymerization. Coal residue has been characterized by fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) to obtain confirmatory evidence. The product analyses using 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR), 13C-nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) techniques are also presented. 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR calculate results suggest that the products contain a significant amount of the desirable hexane soluble fraction. GPC studies indicate using boron trifluoride etherate as catalyst, the weight-averaged molecular weight for the overall liquid product is lower than obtained using ammonium molybdate as catalyst. Coal and LDPE are almost completely converted and total conversion achieves 94.83%.